The 2nd Cut Newsletter: Edition #40

Round Recap #2, How to Pitch, Scottie Pencil Drill, Bag Divider Debate, Jon Sherman’s New Book

Mar 27, 2024

“But that’s what the greats do, they don’t just show up, they do more than practice, they do the work.” - Ryan Holliday

📰 Edition #40 📰

Welcome back to The 2nd Cut Newsletter!

ICYMI, check out last week’s Deep Dive: Stoic Golf: No Pain, No Gain

📫 In today’s Newsletter: Round Recap #2, How to Pitch, Scottie Pencil Drill, Bag Divider Debate, Jon Sherman’s New Book

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

⛳ ⛳ Round Recap ⛳ ⛳

If you read Edition #38, you know my first round of the year wasn’t exactly a confidence booster. I shot a 92 with some blow-up holes on the back nine, including a brutal QUAD.

In last week's post, “Stoic Golf, No Pain, No Gain,” I tried to go into my second round of the year with a good mentality, focusing on the process and better handling the inevitable adverse situations that come up.

Shout out to Ryan, Brian, and Tom for the cold but fun round.

Below is my recap.

Round #2 of 2024:

Score: 75 (+3)

Positives:

My Putting was great. Both lag putts and short putts. 31 total putts
Short game chipping was excellent. Saved a bunch of Pars by getting the ball up and down
Driver was on point. Distance and accuracy.
Par 3’s: 4/4 GIR’s, two birdies, two pars
Three birdies and, more importantly, NO DOUBLES

Negatives:

Three 3-putts
I didn’t capitalize on Par 5’s averaging 5.75 (this is usually my bread and butter)
On 3-putts, it was my lag putting, possibly losing focus of the target/goal
Finishing 3-holes, I started to lose focus and fade a bit

Takeaways:

I can’t really complain one bit. Everything felt great, especially coming off a 92 the previous week. I had a bad break here or there, but I maintained composure and accepted that bogey was probably the best option. Aka I didn’t try to make up strokes by hitting the hero shot. So overall, I played well and I played smart.

I’m very excited about my short game chipping, which was a big area of focus going into this year. Despite the three putts, it was probably one of my better-putting days (eight 1-putts).

The only part of my game that wasn’t the best was my approach game. I did hit some great shots, but I also left a lot short and in tough positions. Some of this could be strike-quality, and some is still adjusting to the cold weather and wind.

I also had a couple of poor bunker shots again, but luckily, nothing that killed my score.

Overall, this was a big confidence builder early in the year.

The Plan:

Moving forward, the plan is still the same: keep playing golf.

As was my plan after round 1, I will continue to focus on my approach shots and bunker game. Don’t expect this all the time!

🐦 Tweets of the Week 🐦

No one has been featured more in this newsletter than Jon Sherman. Many of the concepts I discuss come directly from Jon’s book The Four Foundations of Golf and have greatly improved my golf game.

Well, Jon just released a new book called The Foundations of Winning Golf. If you play in tournaments, club events, or just friendly games with buddies, this book will no doubt help you improve your game. I haven’t read it yet, but I will definitely be featuring it in the future.

There’s been a debate on Twitter lately about bag dividers. I currently have a 7-way bag, but I kind of prefer the 14-way. Which one are you?

📺 💻 T2C Media 📺 💻

Here's another Dan Grieves video for you. This one focuses on pitching from 30 to 80 yards. For many of us, this area between chipping and full approach shots can be awkward. It’s about 15 minutes, but well worth skimming.

Check out the post below from Chris Como. In the short clip, Scottie Scheffler and his coach go over some basic drills to make sure he’s clearing his hips properly. It’s cool to see that even the best in the world go back to simple drills to reemphasize proper mechanics and avoid old habits creeping back in.

chriscomogolf