The 2nd Cut Newsletter: Edition #54
My Driver is Fixed?, Outside Help, Rory’s Missle Drive, The Open TV Schedule, Royal Troon Hype Video, Avoiding Doubles Thread
“Tam Arte Quam Marte.” – as much by skill as by strength – is the Latin motto of Royal Troon Golf Club.
📰 EDITION #54 📰
Welcome back to The 2nd Cut Newsletter!
📫 In today’s Newsletter 📫
My Driver is Fixed?, Outside Help, Rory’s Missle Drive, The Open TV Schedule, Royal Troon Hype Video, Avoiding Doubles Thread
Check out last week’s Newsletter here 👇👇👇
Included: Golf Swing Update, Golf is Hard, Launch Angle Trick, Cam Smith Putting, Royal Troon, Pre-Round Warm Up Routine, Stat of the Week
Golf Update (Driver)
If you read last week's Edition, I discussed the current state of my game, and specifically my driver issues:
The driver yips have killed me. Even the non-topped drives are forcing me to make up a lot of ground. From now on, I will focus exclusively on getting off the tee before worrying about anything else.
Well, it appears that I may have finally fixed my driver issues. I played nine holes Monday and shot a 36 with two birdies and an eagle. I pulled out the Driver five times and generally struck all five well, but most importantly, not a single duff or topped drive.
Even though I was pulling them a bit (and only hit one fairway all day), I had plenty of distance and mostly kept the ball in play.
So what was the issue?
I don’t want to jinx it, but it appears the issue was my attack angle. It was too high. Essentially, I was dipping back and hitting up on the ball too much, which led to me feeling stuck and hitting 20-yard duffs.
I figured this out ONLY because I took an online lesson with Curtis Hughes, who suggested I try feeling like I’m hitting more “down,” similar to my 5 and 7 woods swings.
Here’s the swing with the “down” 5-wood feel.
I tried everything to fix my driver, including watching countless videos, making swing changes, ADDING tilt, and asking others for advice, but I couldn’t figure it out.
I’m not going to lie; golf was not very fun over the last month. In hindsight, I wish I had focused solely on the driver and sought professional advice instead of struggling to diagnose the issue on my own.
This is not to say that the issue will not creep back in from time to time, but I have the fix.
Thank you, Curtis!
🐦 Tweets of the Week 🐦
Well said, Jon.
The last part is a lesson I skipped over (as seen in the intro), and many of us do. We might put in the work and have good habits, but sometimes, we need an outside source to help.
A short video from LKD showing Rory’s new low missle drive. Check it out.
If you are like me and would like to place some bets, Mark Fox has shared a list of the best players at The Open since 2019 ranked by shots gained.
📺 💻 T2C Media 📺 💻
The Open starts tomorrow (or tonight) at Royal Troon. The guide above provides a good reference for watching the action.
Will you be getting up early to watch?
Jamie said it all—a great quick video to get you pumped for The Open.
🔢 Stat(s) of the Week 🔢
I highly recommend that you read this thread by Jon Sherman in full. He provides a ton of stats and does a phenomenal job of illustrating just how much avoiding double bogey matters.
Even when people say they get it, they still underestimate just HOW important it is.
“They are [double bogeys] responsible for 50-75% of all scores above par.”
Thank You
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Til next time.
2nd Cut is a really good newsletter, with news, current stuff and some instruction. They introduced me to Sauce Gardner.