The 2nd Cut Newsletter: Edition #8

My Post Round Recap, Putting Alignment, Hitting Above Your Feet, Stat of the Week and More

Aug 02, 2023

“You cannot hit a golf ball consistently well if you think about the mechanics of your swing as you play. A golfer must train his swing and then trust it.” - Dr. Bob Rotella

Edition #8

Welcome back to The 2nd Cut Newsletter, Edition #8! Thank you all for reading and subscribing.

In today’s Newsletter: My Post Round Recap, Putting Alignment, Hitting Above Your Feet, Stat of the Week, and More

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:

1 - Newsletter every Wednesday
1 - Deep dive every Friday

Post Round Recap

I recently played in my Monday night league and thought it would make for a good post-round recap (you’ll see why soon).

Round #21 of 2023:

Score: 40 (+4) 9 holes

Positives:

-Tee shots were good. Didn’t get into trouble, good distance off the tee

-Approach game was very good, 7/9 GIRs

-Had multiple birdie opportunities, especially on Par 5’s

-Avoided bunkers and stayed out of trouble around the greens

Negatives:

-Putted terribly. 19 total putts, with 3 3-putts.

-Blew up for a 7 (+3) on one hole despite being in a good position

-Lag putting in particular was bad

-Chipping was inconsistent (a running theme)

Takeaways:

My course management was overall pretty good this round. I selected smart targets on tee shots and approach shots. I avoided trouble. Driver and 5-Wood were great off the tee. I took advantage of the Par 5’s, which is my bread and butter. My approach shots made it either on the green or in two cases were just off with a chance to still get up and down.

As I mentioned, my putting and chipping were really lacking. I think putting was more of a mental focus issue whereas chipping was a little of that, but mainly technique issues that I need to work on.

The triple bogey. Ugh. Brian if you are reading this, thanks for making me feel not left out by posting a 7 on the same hole! This was one of those holes you look back on and just say “WTF was I thinking.” We literally just talked about this in the latest deep dive called Avoiding Double Bogeys!

I had a great tee shot which landed in the fairway leaving me between clubs and I was about 120 yards out. The pin was in the middle. I clubbed up to my PW and hit it a tad long landing in the rough about 10 or so feet off the green. No big deal.

I proceeded to duff my chip about 3 feet in front of me (still in the rough). I got greedy on that shot, trying to put it close instead of just getting it on the green. My lie wasn’t great and I still tried to clip it with some height/spin. After about 10 seconds I hastily hit another chip roughly 25 feet past the hole onto the putting surface. Then I proceeded to 3-putt my way to a triple bogey. Not ideal.

The Plan:

Work on my putting routine. Focus on distance control and the target. Stop thinking about the break or the actual stroke of my putts.
Practice chipping more. This is probably the area I practice the least and it shows. I obviously need to practice chipping more but I also clean up my technique by developing a couple of go-to chipping techniques. I tend to change things up too much.
Overall I was happy with my mental game, but all it took was getting a little greedy on that first chip from the rough. And then it spiraled from there. I’m happy about bouncing back on the next hole, but in that situation, I need to just get the ball on the green. Or at least not compound errors by carrying over my anger from the chips into my putting. I’ll be rereading Avoiding Double Bogeys for sure.

As I said in Edition #2, a post-round recap (especially a written one) helps on many levels. Firstly, it can help you realize it wasn’t all that bad by forcing you to highlight positives in your game, which we often gloss over.

And secondly, it objectifies the negatives giving you an opportunity to intentionally focus on what you need to work on. Give it a try. Even if it’s just a quick few sentences in your notes app on your iphone.

Tweets of the Week

Another great tweet from Ross Macleod. It’s a simple thing, but after reading this I realized I’ve been lining up with the ball at the center and not the putter head. This could be a result of an overcorrection from when I played the ball much further up closer to my left foot previously. I’m definitely going to play around with this next time I’m on the practice green. Next time you're out there, check to see where you are lining up. Link

Excellent video from @Jonathanyarwood that shows how to properly set up for when the ball is above your feet. I recommend giving it a watch, it’s less than a minute. To summarize: choke up, sit back, aim right, and stay balanced. Link

Another great find by LKD. Above is a rare short clip of Ben Hogan’s swing. Look at that position! Link

T2C Media

I swear I didn’t even realize Luke Kerr-Dineen wrote this til I posted it here. The guy just churns out phenomenal content. Anyways, I’m a sucker for anything evidence-based and I think this article does a good job of summing up some very common issues and feels to counteract them. Here’s the link

TLDR:

Hinge your hips
Keep your body angles
Turn your right hip behind
Work the belt buckle underneath
Shift, turn, push

Stat of the Week

According to PGA Tour Shot Link data for this season, the average make rate putting from 20 to 25 feet is 12.4%.

When you watch PGA broadcasts it seems like these guys are making 20-foot putts on the regular. But that’s because you are watching a highlight real of 100 guys and seeing only the best stuff.

So remember this stat the next time you’re lining up a 20-foot putt. Give it a chance, avoid 3-putts, and don’t get pissed when it doesn’t go in! Oh and if you make it… go nuts.

Post Round Wrap Up:

After a round, it helps to highlight what you did well. Don’t overlook the good things as we tend to focus on the negatives
Are you correctly lined up on your putts?
When the ball is above your feet: choke up, aim right
PGA Pros have a 12.4% make rate from 20-25 feet

Thank you for reading The 2nd Cut Newsletter! I hope you enjoyed it and found something helpful for your golf game.

Follow me on Twitter at @The2ndCut_t2c and on Instagram @The2ndCut_t2c

Til next time.