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Posted

Work trip this week to Portland, ahhh what a great opportunity to golf in some nice PNW weather! I land at PDX and it’s…97 degrees. Fuck. Oh well, got in 18 on Monday.

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Then got out again on Wednesday for twilight golf, got in another 9. They weren’t doing carts so I walked it which was actually really fun, about 4 miles. Weather in the low 70’s with a slight breeze, so nice.

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I actually shot my best so far, I was 49 through 9 so on track to crack 100.

Back in Austin now and am going out to golf Avery Ranch tomorrow with my wife. Hopefully can keep the good vibes flowing.

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Posted

A few other comments on chipping. As a beginner it absolutely behooves you to get good at chipping. You can really pile up a mountain of lost strokes really quickly around the green with sloppy chipping. Let’s say we hit two good shots on a par 5 and we’re just off the green in 2, thinking birdie. A chunked chip and we’re left with the same chip again, or worse we blade the chip across the green and we’re in a bunker short sided or in some junk we have no chance of getting up and down from. A skulled first chip, a second chip that doesn’t get close to the hole, and now we’re angry because we pissed away a birdie and we 3 putt. So instead of birdie we’re carding a double bogey. The path from 110 to 80 involves eliminating a lot of wasted shots around the green. Two putts after a mediocre chip doesn’t really feel like a lost shot, but it is and they add up. Three putts after a bad chip is a disaster.

Knowing you can get in the cup in 1 or 2 strokes from around the green also transfers a lot of confidence and freedom to your 80-150 yard game. reducing the level of stress over a shot from 125 yards allows you to be more committed to the shot. Tense, hesitant swings produce bad results.  

Some technical notes that I forgot to mention. 

Since you’re in Texas, I’m assuming a lot of the green surrounds you’ll be playing on are bermuda grass (idk?) It is a completely different playing surface than rye/kbg/fescue. You absolutely have to learn how to read the grain and account for it when chipping off bermuda, whereas it’s not a consideration on other grasses. It’s not hard to learn but you have to take it into account when chipping. When you’re chipping with the grain, the club glides along the grass nicely. When you’re chipping against the grain it will really want to grab your club and make it dig in. A putter is often a good choice there. 

When practicing chipping, make sure some of your chips are across slopes. Take note of how the slope treats different trajectories. A slope will grab a high lofted shot sooner and harder while a low runner will push through a some of the slope early. You want to take that into account when dealing with side slopes. You can use it to your advantage at times as well. For example if you’re chipping to a hole that’s downhill from you. Chipping directly at the hole can be really difficult because it’s carrying so much speed and the slope wants to add more. But you can sometimes hit a higher lofted shot 45 or even 90 degrees across the fall line and let gravity gently bring it down to the hole. Alternatively, if you need to traverse a slope to a pin that’s on top of a shelf, the lofted shot will be difficult to get close because the slope wants to repel the ball away down the hill as well as kill its momentum. A low runner will drive through a lot of that early break and has a higher margin for error. 

One of the key ideas to shooting lower scores is taking the worst case scenario out of play. The shot OB off the tee, taking on too much of a forced carry and ending up in the water, not taking your medicine with the short punch back out into the fairway from the trees vs trying to thread the needle towards the green. That applies to chipping as well. It’s generally safer to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible. A bad putt from short grass on hard ground from off the green is going to be a lot better than a bad chip with a high lofted wedge from that same lie. There’s a reason it’s called the Texas wedge. Worst case scenario with the putter there is probably 3 strokes. Worst case scenario with a wedge is that your next shot is significantly harder than the one you started with. Start forming your plan with the thought of getting the ball rolling as quickly as possible and add loft and carry as the shot requires it. 

On the note of carry, make sure you practice varying the amount of longer grass between you and the green. Most of the time you’re going to be carrying the ball onto the green, but rough can also be used to take speed off the ball. For example, standing on a downslope, chipping to a close pin with the green running away from you, it might not be possible to keep the ball remotely close if you carry it onto the green. There, landing the ball in the rough and letting it just trickle onto the green might be an option. 

When practicing chipping, you want to feed as many types of shots as possible into your memory bank. The better your vision and imagination is when approaching a chip, the more options you’ll see for how to play a shot. And the only way to develop feel is reps. 

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Posted
On 8/2/2025 at 8:35 PM, Horn of Gabriel said:

 

I'm still not getting the distance I want out of it; I'm averaging around 200 and my club head speed on the monitor is only mid-90s.  If I try to push it faster my form gets out of whack and I mis-strike it, so that is a work-in-progress.  I've been watching a lot of videos of the pros and the long drivers specifically with regard to weight shift but I still don't feel like I'm recruiting the power of my lower body enough.  For reference, I'm not weak and do lift 😅, I squat and deadlift north of 400 lbs which is decent for my age I guess, I just don't feel like I 'm putting that strength to use on the swing!  Tips welcome.

 

A couple things, one already mentioned is flexibility. There’s a good chance you’re not rotating your hips enough so that you can use the strength you have. 

Another thing a lot of people that struggle with power and/or an over the top swing do is they try to fire everything at the same time from the top of the back swing. The application of the strike from the wrists and arms fire to early and rather than a sequential addition of force, all of the force is spent too early leading to weak and inconsistent swings. 

If you played baseball it would be the equivalent of striding and casting the bat behind you at the same time and then just dragging it through the zone. Or jumping, extending your arm and flicking your wrist all at the same time when shooting a basketball. There is a sequencing to it. 

Something that helped me learn how to whip the club is turning your driver around and holding it upside down, with your hand at the hosel. Make one handed swings with each hand and hear where the whoosh of the club is the loudest. It should be just after where the ball would be, sort of in front of your lead foot. Make some swings getting the sound in the right spot and then try recreating that feel with the club turned around. 

Imagine you were trying to pound a railroad spike horizontally into the trunk of a tree at shin height with a sledge hammer. You wouldn’t yank a sledgehammer back and then yank it down. You’d instinctively, because it’s heavy, gradually add force to assist gravity with the movement without ever thinking about it. 

That’s why guys like Couples and Ernie Els made their power look so effortless. They have a nice smooth summation of force. 

Also, since you squat and deadlift, do you power clean? Its a great way to train explosive power production. 

Posted
11 minutes ago, Gale Snoats said:

Played 18 with my 12-year-old yesterday and he hit a damn hole in one. I’ve been playing my whole life and still don’t have one.

That’s awesome, and so fucking frustrating. How far was it? Was it a good shot or did he get lucky? 

My most regular playing partner almost got his first a couple weeks ago on a horrendous shot. 185 yds, hard pull that missed the green left by 15 yards, bounced around in a tree, fell out onto a slope, bounced down to the green and trickled past the hole. 

Posted

Played Friday with two friends.  I hit the ball OK, but missed by just enough just often enough to screw up a round.  Short sided myself multiple times.  Missed fairways by less than a yard four separate times, all of which ended up in heavy rough that affected my approach shot significantly.  It was one of those rounds that should've been in the low 80s, maybe upper 70s with some good breaks, but carded an 89.  Second shitty round in a row.

Meanwhile, my 12 hdcp buddy rattles off 6 birdies, and my 18 hdcp buddy lips our for albatross and has a banner round.  I need the pendulum to start swinging back the other way.  Soon.  

Posted
That’s awesome, and so fucking frustrating. How far was it? Was it a good shot or did he get lucky? 
My most regular playing partner almost got his first a couple weeks ago on a horrendous shot. 185 yds, hard pull that missed the green left by 15 yards, bounced around in a tree, fell out onto a slope, bounced down to the green and trickled past the hole. 

107 yards pitching wedge. Perfect ball flight slight fade bounced twice rolled about 2 feet and in.
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