The 2nd Cut Newsletter: Edition #5

Jul 12, 2023

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

Edition #5

Welcome back to The 2nd Cut Newsletter, Edition #5! Thank you all for reading and subscribing.

In today’s Newsletter: Journey From a 3 to 6 HC, Tweets of the Week, Top Articles, Podcasts, & Platypus Golf Caddie Product Review

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

What you get: (new schedule)

1 - Newsletter every Wednesday
1 - Deep dive every Friday

The Journey from a 3-Handicap Back to a 6

I’ve previously talked about my journey from a double-digit handicap to a 3 handicap in Edition #1. What I haven’t talked about yet is my more recent journey back up to a 6 handicap.

What happened?

Well, two things happened. One is I’m in the northeast and hardly play at all during the winter months. I’m not golfing in anything below 50 degrees and even that is probably a no-go! I would imagine many of you are in the same boat.

It’s normal for your handicap to go up as your best scores from the end of last season drop off and are replaced with early season rounds where your game is still finding its way back.

It can still be frustrating but when you step back it makes sense. Unless you play golf year-round, your game is going to need some time to ramp back up. You are going to be rusty. Be patient and focus on what you can control.

The second reason for my regression has been implementing a swing change. I’ve been getting lessons (with Ryan Mouque, as I’ve mentioned many times) and it has come with some slight swing changes. I knew I needed to make a change and with that would come short-term discomfort.

It’s taken me at least a month to get truly comfortable. During that period I had some middling scores mixed in with some very encouraging glimpses at the progress and potential.

Finally, over the last few rounds, my swing has felt more natural and has produced great results. I still have work to do, but the biggest change for me has been a much tighter dispersion on my drives and longer shots, and better contact on my approach shots.

The lesson here is: your handicap will fluctuate. Especially at the beginning of the season. It’s normal. And if you are getting a lesson, you might see a short-term regression in your game. Trust the process and you’ll be better off in the long term.

BTW you might not see a regression at all! Sometimes a simple small adjustment can make all the difference.

T2C Tweets of the Week

Another excellent tweet from Josh (@joshlukenichols). Inconsistency is just part of the game. It’s hard to accept, but some days were gonna suck. Some days were gonna feel amazing, and a whole bunch of days will be somewhere in between.

In one round you’re crushing your drives, but putting is atrocious. In the next round, your driving is off and you are putting lights out. It’s a maddening game. All we can do is try to improve our technique and try to better mentally handle the inherent variance in golf. Link

Mike Carroll of @fit_for_golf is a must-follow on Twitter. He has loads of content focused on mobility and strength for golf. If you struggle with flexibility or want to maintain it, the above daily workout is a simple and easy program to follow. Link

What a menu! More courses should be doing things like this. I’m not saying it needs to be $1, but a simple menu of affordable food earns big-time customer service points. Every year at the Master’s there are articles about Augusta Nationals low priced menu. People love it. IMO this is low-hanging fruit for local courses to build loyalty and repeat customers. Link

T2C Media Corner

This is a good article on chipping. It includes some succinct phrases that I’ll definitely be using on the course. I particularly liked “left for loft” and “right for roll”.

In Edition #3 of the Newsletter, we talked about playing the same ball in order to reduce variables and improve consistency. Selecting a golf ball that matches your game is a bit harder to figure out. Check out this 16-minute episode from Lou and Crew on how to select the best golf ball for your game.

T2C Product Reviews

With Prime Day being today I thought I’d share one of my more recent golf purchases, The Platypus Golf Caddie. It’s a quality product and it solves a problem (at least for me it does).

It’s essentially a golf glove case on steroids. The Platypus Golf Caddie has a hand shaper to hold your gloves shape, and a place for tees, ball markers, and fixers. It also has a mesh pocket for anything you want easy access to like cigars, keys, money, extra tees, etc.

I won’t give this product the T2C Must Have status, but it is definitely a nice-to-have product. I like how it keeps my in-round essentials all in one spot in the cart.

The Platypus Golf Caddie is 20% off for Prime Day and depending on color is around $31. Click here for the link.