The Best of April
Controlling Your Emotions, Short Game Chef, Azalea Recipe, Avoiding Big Scores > Making Birdies, Chipping vs Putting, Practice Does Not Make Perfect, Dan Grieves
Today’s post is another monthly best-of summary to resurface some things you might have missed in April. Click on the link for the full post. Enjoy!
Controlling Your Emotions
Jon Sherman’s tweet is dead on. Losing control of our emotions adds strokes to the card. We all know it’s true, yet we still do it.
In Edition #26, we talked about Novak Djokovic and his Mental strength:
“You have your doubts and fears. I feel it every single match. I don’t like this kind of mindset I see alot in sports, like, just think positive thoughts, be optimistic, there’s no room for failure, there’s no room for doubts. It’s impossible. You are a human being.”
Djokovic says the key is to limit how long these emotions affect you, not what many people instinctually try to do, which is avoid the emotions or shield any doubts. He says he acknowledges the feeling, reacts, maybe even yells, and then bounces back quickly.
So, as golfers, what can we learn from this elite athlete? One thing is to stop trying to avoid negative thoughts or emotions. We are human and they will happen during a round. The key is to let these emotions in, acknowledge them, react, and then let them go and move on.
Of course, this is easier said than done. But we can get better at the mental game by having the right expectations, accepting that we will have bad shots and breaks, and even possibly using conscious breathing, as Djokovic mentioned.
In an old post called “The Next Shot,” Tiger Woods explains to his son Charlie how to approach the game:
“I don't care how mad you get. Your head could blow off for all I care, just as long as you're 100 percent committed to the next shot."
-Tiger Woods to his son Charlie
There is a phenomenon called the Sunk Cost Fallacy that is frequently cited in economics and business. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the Sunk Cost Fallacy is “the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.”
For our purposes, I like Wikipedia’s definition of a sunk cost: “A sunk cost is a sum paid in the past that is no longer relevant to decisions about the future.”
This is what Tiger is trying to tell his son Charlie.
TLDR: Whatever you did on the last shot is irrelevant to the next shot. Focus on the current situation and make the best decision going forward.
It’s okay to get mad, but you must let it go before the next shot. This is something that needs to be practiced. But over time, if you make a conscious effort, you will get better at it and, in turn, reduce strokes.
Short Game Chef
I loved this video. Short Game Chef, aka Parker McLachlin, works with ForePlay pod member Dan Rapaport on his short game. It’s about 30 minutes long and very detailed, covering chipping, pitching, and bunker play.
Park talks to Dan about using the body more than the arms, multiple ways to create and reduce speed, and how being shallow can increase the margin of error on your chipping method. I also love his concept of having a base “vanilla chip” to build off of.
From bunkers, he shows Dan how to hit high, soft bunker shots and then how to hit longer ones off tight lies. There is a lot to learn in this one.
I HIGHLY recommend watching this if you need help with chipping.
🍹 Azalea Cocktail Recipe 🍹
Many online recipes say to use pineapple juice and freshly squeezed lemon, but this is the OFFICIAL Masters recipe straight from Augusta.
Below is a photo from our Masters Party last year. Unfortunately, it was the day the play was suspended. But the drinks were good 🍹
Avoiding Big Scores > Making Birdies
Link: Avoiding Big Scores > Making Birdies
Yesterday, after Rory Mcilroy finished his first round, he sat at a respectable -1, his best opening round at Augusta in six years. Meanwhile, his group partner Scottie Scheffler finished -6, only one behind the leader.
When asked about Scottie in a post-round interview, here’s what Rory said:
“Scottie does such a good job of … it doesn’t look like it’s 6-under par, and then at the end of the day it’s 6-under par. He’s just so efficient with everything,”
“If you look at Scottie compared to the rest of the field, the amount of bogey-free rounds he plays and he shoots is phenomenal, and that’s the secret to winning major championships and winning big-time golf tournaments is more limiting the mistakes rather than making a ton of birdies.”
Of all the things Scottie does great, what stood out most to Rory was Scottie’s ability to avoid bogey! Not his towering drives, his ability to shape it either way, his approach shots, or his short game. It was his ability not to get himself in trouble.
<CLICK THE LINK FOR THE FULL POST>
Chipping vs. Putting
There is not a round that goes by where I don’t see a fellow golfer that’s just off the green, walking up to the ball with a wedge in their hand. I cover my eyes in horror at what’s about to happen.
Just putt it! Fringe, fairway, light rough. If you are just off the green putting is almost always the best option for mid to higher handicap players.
Yes, there are exceptions to this, and yes, I’ve made this same mistake many times. Here are the stats from Lou Stagner himself:
In this example, a 10-handicap player averages the same amount of strokes to get it in the hole for a 5-yard chip as a 58-foot putt. As I said, there are exceptions: bad lies, sprinkler heads, no path to the hole for a putt, etc., but by and large, putting will win out on average.
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The other exception is if you are close to a scratch golfer, the calculus of chipping vs putting begins to narrow.
I think we make this mistake for a couple of reasons. One, hitting a good chip is just more satisfying. It’s impressive, it feels damn good when it works. Two, we overestimate the quality of our shots vs. the result of the shot.
Meaning a so-called bad putt might FEEL bad, but very rarely does it leave you in much trouble. But a lousy chip could end up 2 inches in front of the original spot or skulled across the green into a bunker (or in the woods).
Even a “good chip” we overestimate. It feels good and looks good, but we might be 10 feet short of the hole still worse off than an average putt.
📺 💻 T2C Media 📺 💻
Last week, I included a clip of Rick Shiels working with Dan Grieves on short game shots. This is the whole video, and it’s full of excellent insights.
It’s over an hour long, so if you don’t want to watch the entire thing, at least watch the setup portion around 11:00 minutes in.
A Reminder to Myself: Practice Does Not Make Perfect
Link: Practice Does Not Make Perfect
As I mentioned in the latest newsletter, I’m not loving my current swing. So, I went back through old posts to find a little inspiration and found the post below.
Practice Does Not Make Perfect
“As a golfer desiring to improve your game, it is imperative that you strike the words “practice makes perfect” from your vocabulary and rid yourself of this mentality as soon as possible.”
-Shane Jones, The Little Book of Breaking 80
I wish I had listened to his quote above after reading Shane’s book years ago. Like many others, I made the mistake of developing bad habits and ingraining them through repeated “zombie” range sessions.
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Those range sessions were basically me hitting a large bucket of balls every 10 seconds while trying to “self-diagnose” my swing.
I think there are two takeaways here:
Get a lesson. Have the fundamentals and basic setup shown to you by a professional. It sets you on the right path and will save you time and effort. You'll have a plan and drills to work on at the range.
Our practice habits aren’t very good.
Shane says:
“It isn’t that hitting golf balls is inherently bad, but rather, the manner in which most golfers approach hitting balls on the driving range is ineffective, and in many cases, downright detrimental to their games.”
Don’t buy the large bucket. Slow down. Work on a drill. Put five or so balls down on the mat at a time.
Take one club and pick a target. Hit those five balls at the target, taking ample time between each shot. Hit the next ball and watch its flight. How did it feel? Was it off the toe? Heel? Fat? Thin? Rehearse a feel with just the club after the first shot. Take your time.
I don’t want to discourage you from practicing at the range. It is vital to improving. But if done wrong, it can be detrimental to your game.
Most of what’s in this article is obvious. Nothing is world-changing. But am I doing it?
No. I’m rushing, changing things constantly, and not rehearsing between swings or getting feedback between shots.
Despite knowing this (and writing about it), I still fall prey to the biases to which we all fall. So, this was a welcomed reminder.
Lesson:
slow down
pick a target
rehearse
no zombie range sessions
analyze feedback between shots
take half shots and use drills
WITB: What's in the Bag?
I had a fitting with Kevin Kraft yesterday, which resulted in a couple of new additions to the bag. So, I thought I’d share a "What’s in the Bag" post with some commentary on my choices.
Kevin Kraft is a Master Club Fitter at 2nd Swing Golf in Columbia, MD. Kevin has played on the Korn Ferry Tour and recently won the 2023 Maryland Senior Open and the 2023 Pennsylvania Open. You can read my interview with him here.Driver: Ping G430 MAX 10K
I switched from a SimMax2 10.5 degree to the Ping G430 MAX 10K 9 degree with a Ping Tour 2.0 Chrome 65 Stiff Shaft.
I never got fitted for my SimMAX, and I always felt like I wasn't getting the most out of my shots in terms of consistency and accuracy. Part of that was due to the loft and partly the shaft.
The difference with the PING was immediately noticeable. I was hitting the sweet spot consistently, low launch, accuracy up, and I didn’t lose any swing speed.
I’m excited to see how this club translates to the course.
<CLICK THE LINK FOR THE FULL POST>
If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please comment below or email me at the2ndcut@substack.com.
Have a great weekend!
