The 2nd Cut Newsletter: Edition #30

7-Woods, Don’t Give Up, Play Like Rory, Short Game Tips

The 2nd Cut

Jan 18, 2024

“Don’t be too proud to take lessons. I’m not.” - Jack Nicklaus

📰 Edition #30 📰

Welcome back to The 2nd Cut Newsletter!

📫 In today’s Newsletter: 7-Woods, Don’t Give Up, Play Like Rory, Short Game Tips

If you’re new here, this newsletter is designed to provide valuable insights, tips, and ideas from around the internet to improve your golf game.

What you get:

1 - Newsletter every Wednesday
1 - Deep dive every Friday

Irons, Hybrids, and Woods…

Michael Kim, professional golfer and Twitter extraordinaire, has an excellent thread on how amateurs should approach a club fitting. Check that out, but I want to focus on the second part of his tweet, where he makes a bold statement:

“Most [golfers] should not have irons longer than 6.”

I probably would have ignored this tweet a few years ago, but I think I agree with Michael now.

My hybrid tends to go left and low. My long irons are just inconsistent and often chunky. The odds are not with me if I’m hitting 3-hybrid or 4-iron.

About two years ago, I bought a used 5-wood to fill a large gap between my Driver and 3-hybrid. I absolutely love it. It feels amazing. Effortless. I like it occasionally off the tee, but its real value is on approach shots on tight lies, even the rough. Contact is easier; the ball goes higher and lands soft. It is a real game-changer.

Despite this welcomed addition to the bag, I stuck to the conventional setup of 4-PW, partly due to stubbornness and stigma. However, that stigma regarding higher-lofted woods such as a 7 or 9 wood is changing.

High-lofted woods are becoming increasingly popular on tour, with around 25% of players using a 7-wood now. Players like Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Cam Smith, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland, and Xander Schauffele have recently put one in the bag.

Here’s a great excerpt from Golf Digest explaining the advantages:

The 7-wood has other important advantages. It’s better than a hybrid or utility iron from the rough. With its longer shaft, the 7-wood launches higher and spins more. That’s vital because playing out of the rough reduces launch and spin. It’s also more forgiving. When golfers talk about how forgiving hybrids are, they are comparing them to the corresponding iron, not a 7-wood. A 7-wood head is considerably larger than a hybrid, making it much more forgiving with a moment of inertia (which increases stability and mitigates ball-speed loss on mis-hits) that is significantly higher. - Golf Digest Link

Long Story short. I will be adding a 7-wood to the bag this offseason. Depending on yardage, this will most likely replace my 3-hybrid or 4-iron. I might even throw in a 9-wood if I can.

I highly recommend trying a 5, 7, or 9-wood if you get the chance. You might be surprised by how much better you hit them.

🐦 Tweets of the Week 🐦

Not much to add here. Every stroke counts.

📺 💻 T2C Media 📺 💻

Golf Digest: What is the best course yardage for you?

We crunched some numbers to contextualize just how short courses play for pros and how long they play for the rest of us. The results are astounding and can be taken two ways: Either tour pros need to play much longer courses or we need to move up a set of tees . . . or three. - Drew Powell of Golf Digest

Powell delves into various stats for amateur vs pro distances, and the conclusion is what most of us already know…

There is no issue with distance in the amateur game, and most of us should be teeing it up a tee box or two closer.

Check out the full piece here for more on Rory and distance in general.

The sweet sounds of Dan Grieves yet again! The video below perfectly illustrates how coaching can make a difference quickly.

Dan identifies the issue immediately and explains the whys and hows of what the player should be doing and feeling.

@dangrievegolf Ask any questions in the comments! #dangrievegolf #golftiktok

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Most golfers (even pros) are not very good at identifying swing issues. We often think we’re doing something completely different until we see it on video or someone else points it out.

Dan is a genius-level coach we will most likely not get a lesson from (one can only wish), but a trained set of eyes can do wonders for your game. Luckily, there are many pros online and in person who can help at a relatively low price.