Indoor Driving Ranges

I've been the indoor driving range several times since the snow started falling and I've noticed a few things that I'd like to share.

In a sentence: I hate indoor ranges. The air isn't quite the same as being outdoors, it's kind of musty, kind of old. The matts are like hitting off concrete from their "fairway" lies and the "rough" offers what I think more closely resembles actual grass. So all of my shots are either off rubber tees (more in a minute) or the rough.

There are countless people above me hitting shots, which is a bit more distracting than the usual crowds on either side. Sometimes they'll try to chip to the flags that are positioned at the 20-yard mark, so the balls will just suddenly plop from the sky and land less than 10 yards away from me. To say that golf balls that fall from the sky into my peripheral vision is a distraction would be an understatement.

The tees are in front of a mini-golf course, which is often jumbled full of kids or old guys with money on the line that shout and holler constantly. I honestly am not sure whether the crazy guys or the kids bother me more. But I let that one go because they're having a good time and my serious practice time shouldn't keep anyone from enjoying themselves.

I also am not a big fan of the putting surface. While it's pretty nice that the putting green has six holes, is a decent size and is available to practice for free, it's basically the same feel as the fairway mats: pure concrete. The ball rolls a long, long way on the fake greens and it really won't help me come spring when the greens are damp and spongy. I can get the same practice at home, even if it takes a little creativity, and not have to worry about disrupting anyone else's putting practice. Plus, the carpet is a little slower so it more accurately helps me dial in speed compared to the range's greens.

Lastly, I'll mention the tees. Rubber tees could be the most difficult thing in the world to deal with. Firstly, many of the mats are patted down pretty firmly, so switching tees out is a pain. When I finally do swap them, I have to try and track down a few for the different heights that I need. I use a medium length tee for my driver, and a fairly low tee for my fairway woods and hybrids. Low tees at the dome are few and far between, and high tees just never seem to find the right height until I've wasted four or five balls. Regular tees just don't seem to stay in the rough very well, often leaning one way or the other even before the ball is placed. I'm tempted to find a long one and cut it down slowly until I have the perfect length and keep it in my bag for when I come back. It might be a little criminal and probably a little crazy, too, but if it helps me groove a better tee shot I'm game.

Is all this a bad thing? Maybe. I'm not a golf professional I couldn't tell you how habitually hitting off this fake grass actually affects my swing. I can fathom a guess that when I start hitting off grass again that I'll have to work on getting into a groove with my irons again to start taking divots. I would also imagine that too much hitting off a hard surface (like the fairway that I avoid) is going to bend the lie angles of the clubs if you keep pounding into them. And picking shots cleanly off that garbage won't teach me to dig into the ball. But being the average golfer that I am, I can only bite my tongue and drive to the dome every week until spring melts the snow off the dirty mitten.

2K10

As the Golf Channel loves to spam on every commercial break, Golf 2K10 is under way. I really never thought that I would be one sitting on the couch looking for something to watch only to leave on the golf channel for three hours.

My family always watched golf in the final round when we'd have birthday parties or whatever other family occasion brought us together. And inevitably, I would find myself in the other room with my cousins or sisters avoiding sitting around the tube with the old folks watching some guys in goofy pants playing what could possibly be the most boring television ever.

Even playing as a teenager in my yearly outing (yes, usually it was a singular outing) I hated watching golf on TV. Maybe that's why I had no idea what I was doing. Every shot was aimed at the flag, every drive was at least one fairway over. I am pretty disappointed in my golfing youth because I never accomplished anything remotely helpful. I knew that I could swing a hockey stick, therefore, I could probably swing a golf club too. Boy was I wrong.

When I began playing last spring seriously for the first time in my life, I knew that I was hooked. I told my dad about how terribly I played my first round out and to my 124 he replied, "I can't say I ever remember you scoring any better." Ouch.

But here I am, midwinter in Michigan, watching golf in the middle of the day. Almost daily. Even some of the infomercials suck me in. So for anyone lucky enough to be playing on a regular basis in January, piss off!

Golf the Mental Game

I finally finished Golf the Mental Game today, by Tom Dorsel, PhD. It was the first book I've read about golf psychology and it was an interesting read. I must say that this kind of book is something that I think will help me, but I might need to go back and reread certain chapters after I start playing again in the spring to get a better idea what he's talking about.

It's fairly well-written, but also a little repititive. He uses certain expressions or examples repeatedly and it wore on me a bit. I understood the point the first time, use another example to drive the point home. But it is fairly evident that he's passionate about golf and helping people improve. I would recommend reading it, but in chunks. I read it mixed with Hank Haney's Essentials of the Swing (which I'm still working through) and that helped me move through it.

I think there's a lot to be said about the psychological game of golf that doesn't get mentioned in books like Haney's book or Golf Digest's shot shaping book. There are 50 mini lessons in this book that cover a great deal of subjects and issues, ranging from Emotions and Concentration to Practice and Game Improvement. Another bonus is that it's also affordable (less than $20 at Borders, cheaper online).


Other notes:
I'm looking for some concrete measures of game improvement to monitor when I start playing. Obviously I know that I can improve my fairways hit, my greens in regulation, but is there another statistic that anyone has found really helped bring their game together?

Who's Your Caddy

I finished up Who's Your Caddy by Rick Reilly last night and I'm very pleased with good it was. Rick is a columnist for Sports Illustrated and to write the book he found pros that would let him caddy for them. The names include people from all over the place. He golfs with Jill McGill, John Daly, Donald Trump and a host of other players. Each chapter is different but still connected and really makes for an easy read.

Absolutely a great book for any golfer and maybe even some nongolfers that enjoy good humorous writing.


As a side note, I love having golf back on TV. I watched parts of both the SBS Championship and the Africa Open and was very happy to see golf being played that well. It was also nice to see the occasional mishit shot from even the tour pros in the first outing of the year, reminding us all that they are human, after all.

Old Posts

Here are some posts I made on another blog for my journalism class last semester that I don't want to repost, but will make available for anyone to read through this blog. I won't be posting anything else on that blog and the random stuff in between was for assignments so I would recommend sticking with the posts linked below as they have the only relevant content.

http://jrn411adamming.blogspot.com/2009/12/end-of-season-traditions.html

http://jrn411adamming.blogspot.com/2009/12/oh-tiger.html

http://jrn411adamming.blogspot.com/2009/11/feet-of-putts-holed.html

http://jrn411adamming.blogspot.com/2009/11/final-outing.html

http://jrn411adamming.blogspot.com/2009/11/redemption.html

http://jrn411adamming.blogspot.com/2009/11/golf-today.html

Enjoy

Christmas Readings

For Christmas, like many self-loathing individuals, I focused all of my wants on golf. And boy do I have a lot of golf stuff now. But something I knew I wanted and probably wouldn't really get from my family was more books. Books can get expensive and if I started asking for books I might get some, but I probably would miss out on some other stuff that I wanted.

So for my present to myself, I spent a lot on books. It's outrageously expensive to buy books in the stores unless they're on sale. Online, though, it's quite a bit cheaper. Since Amazon gave free shipping on my order, I loaded up and bought 12 books. Now the off season will be full of meaningless swing thoughts that I'm sure I'll lose by the time it gets warm enough to start playing again! Just maybe I can retain something though.

In no particular order, I have Phil Mickelson's Secrets of the Short Game, Dave Pelz's Damage Control and Short Game Bible, all three books from Stan Utley, Tales from Q School, Who's Your Caddy, Golf Naked, Zen Golf, Hank Haney's Essential of the Swing, and the Downhill Lie.

I've read most of Phil's book, all of Damage Control, Golf Naked, Tales from Q School, the Downhill Lie and two of the three books from Stan Utley (still have to tackle the Art of Putting). All have been informational, and will probably help me with my game in one way or another.

Golf Naked is probably the least informational if you follow golf you know a lot of the stuff that's in the book. It was still a fairly entertaining read and I would recommend it to any new or beginning golfer.

Damage Control is interesting. The book has a lot of good information and will teach you a great deal about hitting shots from trouble, but the terminology was a little weird for me. Will I see it the same way Pelz does? No. There are a few parts of the book that I feel make it completely worthwhile. The first is that in reading it as a whole, you'll learn to swallow you ego pretty quickly and play safe shots. The second, is that he teaches you a very effective way to train for unusual shots including a parts list and assembly instructions for stuff you could get from Home Depot or a similar store. And lastly, there is a section about hitting the ball when you have an object obstructing your swing that really I will go back and ingrain once the season starts because it gives excellent information about how to swing and how to hold the club face.

I've read most of Phil's book and I'm torn about what to think. While I am a believer that he's one of the best short game players in the game, I'm not sure I can replicate his shots the way he does. It seems easy, but in reality, I don't think reading his book will really work for me without putting in a lot of practice.

On the other side, though, Stan Utley's short game books have been very helpful. He teaches much simpler technique than Phil Mickelson and I really like the way I'm controlling my shots. The consistency is tough to tell from practice mats but I can already see a more repeatable swing from my chips and my pitching was garbage last year so I have no honest framework to compare that too. I would highly recommend the read if you're frustrated from 50 yards and in.

Tales from Q School was a very well-written book, but is difficult to read straight through. There are so many players and so many stories being told at the same time that it's better in chunks. I had to go back and re-read certain passages to make sense of them. But as far as the writing goes, this is a great read that will make anyone appreciate and look forward to Q School every year.

Lastly, my favorite, the Downhill Lie. This is such an entertaining story I will read it again and soon. It's just so funny. Well-written, funny, keeps you moving through the story, it's a very good novel. I can appreciate this book and even reading parts to my girlfriend got us both in tears laughing and she hates my golf addiction. When you're looking for your next book give the Downhill Lie a chance.

I'll do another post as I finish more books with thoughts about what I liked and didn't' like, and if anyone has any comments about books they liked, I'd love to hear about them.

Happy New Year!

Hello all,

This is the first post of many this year for me. I've just graduated college and just last summer got hooked on this crooked game we call golf. I hope we all had a happy and safe new year!

This happy little blog of mine will focus on a variety of things, but first and foremost, golf. I enjoy other sports so occasionally I may post some blurbs at the bottom of a post about something happening in other sports that I found interesting--don't worry though, the focus is on the right game here.

Growing up, I loved hockey. So naturally, when I started swinging a golf club as a young teenager around 12 or 13, I had a fluid, strong swing. This swing was actually a terrible golf swing I was just athletic. But, my dad saw potential and bought me some clubs and we went out maybe once or twice a year through my high school years. That was all the golfing I ever did. I played a par 3 course with my girlfriend once to up my rounds in a year to 3 a while ago.

But for the most part, I was pretty terrible. I played my two rounds a year with my dad, my uncle, and my grandpa. We'd always go out on Father's Day, and occasionally we'd go out on a weekeend just one more time. My dad used to golf a lot, he was pretty good. Not great, as I know now that he's lacking quite a few fundamentals in his short game, but he was solid. He consistently drove the ball a long way and fairly straight, has a decent approach from outside 100 yards, and is a very good putter.

My uncle is more like me in that he does a lot of reading. Now, growing up I did zero reading about golf, and focused more on video games guides and short stories. But my uncle reads all the time. He has subscriptions to a couple golf magazines and reads and he just can't seem to get to the level that he's really happy with. I admire his tenacity and he does seem to know where things are supposed to be in your swing, he just can't quite put them all together for himself for 18 holes. He is still a respectable golfer, just a little worse than my dad most of the time.

And lastly, my grandpa. I love my grandpa dearly, he's the sweetest old man and I can't say enough nice things about him. He loved the game, and played all the time. He was always in very good shape as he aged, and when he started having back problems it was misdiagnosed and operated on. It didn't get any better. Finally, doctors realized that what he had was actually Lou Gehrig's disease, and that because he was in such good shape, they didn't realize it until it had progressed significantly. My grandpa finally retired and instead of enjoying his golden years he's confined to a wheel chair and needs help getting up and down. It's truly a crime to see him so helpless and know that he waited his whole life for these last years only to have them taken away.

As a golfer, by the time I started playing, grandpa and I were close to the same ability level. So I'd guess that in his prime, he was probably shooting around the same scores that my uncle did. He moved around alot in his back swing, I always remember watching his foot twist and shake when he would get ready to swing a golf club. He beat me, but I was always hoping that I could put together a few good shots and maybe sneak out of last place just one time. It never happened, though.

So, this year for the first time ever, I was invited to play with a friend of mine that I went to high school with. Mike was a good friend of mine, but between the four of us that always hung out, golf was never a conversation. So when he asked me to play I was surprised that I wasn't the only one that did it. Naive of me to think, sure, but I did. He told me that he'd been out and played a course called The Myth and that it was cheap. I liked that.

We had to stop and get me a new golf glove on the way (pro shops are expensive, I knew this much at least) because mine had a hole from last year that I never bothered to replace. We arrived as one of the only people on the course and I was excited but nervous. I knew I was a bad golfer. How bad? Well, I couldn't actually tell the last score I posted prior to this year. But it was bad. Was Mike bad too? Or would this be something that he was better than me at?

To know our group of friends is like knowing any other group of young guys: we mock each other every opportunity we get, we play sports together, and we're always competing at everything. So, being a slender, athletic frame compared with Mike's heavier build, I hoped I could continue my domination in the realm of sports. Basketball was our main game and while Mike did have an advantage in that he outweighed me by around 80 pounds and could go to the basket a lot easier, I was quicker and could hit a jump shot. One-on-one it was no contest. But golf was a different animal.

I don't remember much of the round, just the final number. I remember getting frustrated and holding it in. I remember that I lost more balls than I ever have before probably in my whole life. And I remember playing as well as I ever did in the past. So when I almost had to ask for a calculator, well, it wasn't good. I shot a 123 that day, sincerely embarrassed at how badly I had played. Mike scored in the 110s, but it was enough to beat me.

Mike and I weren't the closest two in the group so I did still enjoy the outing and had a good time talking just the two of us and getting to know him a little better. I tried to get out with him again but it didn't happen that year. But what did happen was a transformation. As much as I hated that outing, I loved it. Being with a friend, talking, laughing, even though I still lost, I didn't lose to people that I considered to be pros. And I wasn't embarrassed because he wasn't trying to give me pointers or advice to get better.

And that's where it all started for me. I ended up being a very dedicated golfer for the remainder of last year. I played all the time. There's a par 3 course near my house that I played two or three times a week, which was a good eye-opener for me because the greens are about half the size of standard course greens. I had to sharpen my approach shots quite a bit before I could really find anything resembling acceptable. And I still never quite did.

My scores improved over time, particularly for some reason on a fairly tough course called Blackheath. Blackheath is a Scottish-style links course with tough heather grass that grew up over a foot tall wherever it was on the course. It was generally the second cut of rough, but that didn't stop me from putting more than my share of balls in. I found about half of them though, I was a pretty diligent searcher. In spite of the difficulty of the course, I actually got better there than I did other courses, even if they were much easier. Familiarity was a huge factor for me.

I started playing around April or May. I finished with more than 30 rounds of golf played, more than $1000 spent on a game that a year earlier I literally spent zero dollars on, and a new addiction to explain to my girlfriend. I finished shortly before Thanksgiving, which was a bit early but after my final round I was scared to go back out. My last round on that mid-November morning was an 85. Eighty-five!!!!
It was cold out, and a little windy, but I scored better than I ever had. I had one blow up hole but I bounced back and focused and just found a zone that I never had before. I was hitting greens in regulation like it was my job to start the back nine and before the day was done I could barely feel my hands enough to write down those last few scores.

After my last outing though, I knew that my game was going to get better. A lot better. If I could shoot an 85 with no instruction and only reading through one book, who knows what I could really shoot. In the coming months, everyone reading this blog will. And I'm going to try really hard to keep things interesting, upbeat and, hopefully, low!