Author: Mark Sewall

What is your C game? Recently while listening to Jon Sherman talk about managing expectations. He pointed out that most of the time on the course you have your B game or at worst your C game, and you have to adjust to make the best of it. 

So what does that look like? 

It’s 10 out of 10 golf. Its shots you can hit every time with a good result. It’s efficiently moving the ball closer to the hole.

All too often we spend all our time practicing the perfect move or the sick flop shot when we should just be grinding on contact, aim, and keeping the ball on the ground.

The Drive:

On the range play a game of fairway finder. For every drive that would hit a fairway and was the shot shape you intended, you get 2 points. For every missed fairway or missed shot shape you lose 5 points. How many shots does it take you to get to 10?  

The approach:

For approach shots if you have been collecting data work on the yardage you suck at, if not you can pick anything between 100 and 150 yards, because these are the most common distances you will face on the course.

The game here is the target. Pick a yardage and a target. The scoring is the same as the fairway game, 2 points for a hit -5 points for a miss or a hit with the wrong shot shape. How many shots do you need to get to 10?

The pitch:

These are just your 30 to 50 yard shots. Pick a target and judge your score on hitting the target and the flight you wanted, ie a low flighted 50 yard shot or a high flighted 30 yard shot. Whatever you feel more confident in to score well. 2 points for a hit -5 points for a miss 

The chip:

This is simple, practice 50 percent of the time on low running shots. Work with your putter, hybrid/fairway wood or irons that let you get the ball on the green and roll to the target. The rest of your time work on getting over something like a trap and hitting the green.

The sand shot:

Simple, get out of the trap by any means necessary.

Five shots, five greens. Depending on the sand conditions and the height of the bunker lip this could be any club between a  60 degree wedge to a putter. This game is just 5 out of 5. Anything that does not get on the green – start over.

The putt:

This is simple too. 25 foot lag putt and 7 feet and in short putts. You get points for anything that drops in or is 10 percent of the distance from the cup, except 3 footers you just gotta make those.

The point of all this C game practice is to find the setup, shot shape, and club in each situation that you can lean on when your A game has left the building.

So next time when your A game is on vacation let your C game get you through the round

And as always may the fairways be with you!

Chicken little ran screaming…the ball is too long, the ball is too long, golf will never be the same.

The USGA  has decided that distance is ruining this once great game. This drum beat has been getting louder and louder for the last 25 years. Ever since Tiger woods made Augusta National look like the prettiest muni track in the world and full on trucked the field.

The response to this once in a generation talent was to lengthen the Master track by 500 yards. The Goat looked at what they had done to challenge his talent, and proceeded to go back to back wins, that he didn’t threepeat was seen as a victory. 

See the reason that length alone did not faze Tiger has to do with his all around game. Dude was the best ball striker of maybe any generation and his putting and short game were not bad either.

What the extra length did do, is give the longer hitters an advantage. Since professional golf is not a long drive contest, just ask Kyle Berkshire, that long drive has to be followed up by an elite approach and putt. Maybe a chip or sand shot too. 

The retort from the long ball haters is “ but there are so many more players driving it 300 yards or more” yes, well given the modern PGA course length of, on average, 7300 yards you would have to average 300 yards to be competitive. Crank the distance back to 6900 yards and neck the fairway at 300 yards and watch all the short hitters (280 yards) start roaring to the top of leader boards.

The irony of all of this, is that in stretching the golf courses the people that scream that distance is killing the game are the ones sending the signal to players that they need distance to compete.

The same people that are telling the average golfer to move up a tee or two because they don’t hit it far enough, seem unaware that making pros compete on longer courses means the longer players have an advantage.

So let’s forget about all this making the courses longer and blame all the distance on technology, yeah that’s the ticket. Let’s forget we made it nearly impossible for a 280 player to win or be competitive, let’s just roll the ball back. Brilliant!

Further lets forget that the average club golfer has improved distance off the tee by only 20 – 25 yards since 1990. So while the USGA talks about the ball rollback being a “nothing burger”  that 5 yards is a 20% reduction of what you and I have gained over the years.

The pga tour average has improved by roughly double the amateur gain during the same period. Same technology, yet twice the distance. Could it be that the biggest variable is the athlete? Could it be that by offering larger and larger prize pools and longer and longer courses to compete on, the tours have brought better and faster athletes into the game and now the USGA wants the merry go round to stop so they can bring us all back to a simpler time of ballata and persimmon, of blades and plaid pants.

Bryson Dechambeu seems to think that the fundamental question of what is the desired endstate has to be answered. As in do we want to grow the game of golf or do we want to make the game look more like it did in whatever period the governing bodies are trying to achieve, because you can’t do both, these are mutually exclusive goals. 

The USGA and those that support these efforts to pull distance out of the game mistake nostalgia for stewardship of the game. The truth is that courses are faster, longer, and prize purses are life changing. In response better and faster athletes are rushing in. 

The ball didn’t do that. The driver didn’t do that. Equipment is not what’s changing the game. 

The game is still about the lowest score regardless of technology or athleticism. Statistics have changed the game as much or more. Strokes gained have put drivers in the hands of golfers more often. Strokes gained and Decade have stressed that one shot shape is more consistent than hitting it both ways. Are we going to outlaw these things too? Because you would have to roll back knowledge as well if you want golf to look as it once did.

So my open question to the USGA is simple, do you want nostalgia or a growing thriving game?

I know what my answer is.

May the fairways be with you!

Every golfer has a goal when setting up a bag of clubs. Sometimes it’s a professional getting ready for a tournament and sometimes it’s a 25 handicap looking to break 90. 

I’m setting up my bag this year to break 80. As a 15 handicap I need to find 6 to 10 strokes. To make this a reality I will focus on one goal, no doubles or worse

Let’s start with what every golf bag needs, a driver or default tee club, a putter, and a sand wedge. 

• Driver; Cobra. OPTIM X
  • Kal’i blue 60 stiff
  • Standard length
  • Holsel set to A1
• Putter Cobra
  • The 3DP™ TOUR AGERA RS
• Ping 159 54 Degree
  • E grind

Next a well gapped bag needs to cover an average range of approach shots with between 10 – 13 yard gaps. My average drive is 237 yards so my approach shots should fall between 105 and 175 yards. So we add pitching wedge through 6i and 5 hybrid. 

• 5 Irons; Ping
  • Ping i240 PW – 6i
  • Standard loft
  • Nippon Modous3 115 stiff
  • Standard length 
  • Standard lie
• hybrid; Ping
  • Ping 430 
  • Ping chrome tour stiff
  • Loft 24.5
  • Hosel set to big minus

Now add a 200+ yard club for long par 3’s and we are done with basic bag setup. 

• 5 wood; Cobra OPTIM X 5 wood
  • 18 degree
  • Kal’i blue 60 stiff
  • Hosel set to A1

So now that we have the 10 clubs all bags need we can focus on the strategy picks.

Tiger Tee Strategy – The layup

Most doubles or worse can be traced back to the tee shot. Every good golf course design puts hazards or big trouble in your way at least once per round. These holes force you to hit the layup drive because the hazards and or penalty zones will kill your round. Enter the mini driver. It’s a little shorter than the big dog but has a tighter dispersion.

• Mini Driver; Cobra OPTIM Mini
  • Kal’i blue 60 stiff
  • Standard length
  • Hosel set to A1

No 3 putts 

Almost all 3 putts can be traced back to speed control. For golfers of all skill levels the percentage of made putts falls off a cliff after 10 feet. So consistent speed control with the putter is key. My putter this year is a Cobra 3DP Tour AGERA RS. I picked this model for a combination of high moi and the DLT (Descending Loft Technology) face which gives a consistent launch every time.

No double chips.

Chipping technique and skill is most of the solution, but having wedges in multiple grinds, lofts, and bounce will give the skilled player options to get the ball on the green the first time.

Statistically speaking, Not all dispersion patterns are the same. From your driver to your short irons the biggest deviation from target is left to right. Once you get to 100 yards or less it’s north and south that matters most.

So slotting a 50 degree gap wedge between the pitching wedge and 54 degree sand wedge is an obvious choice. Now add a 58 degree lob wedge and we have nice 4-5 degree gaps from 6i to lob – a pretty standard setup.

• Ping 159 50 degree
  • Black dot
• Ping 159 58 degree
  • Black dot
    • T grind

Of course we just have one problem, that leaves an open slot in the bag.

I chose to go with a 62 degree lob wedge over a hybrid or fairway wood at the top. Although most players favor the tighter gap at the top of the bag, either choice will be in play maybe once or twice a round unless your having a really bad day. So an extra get out of jail club is what we are going with – we shall see if the strategy pays off this season.

• Titleist Vokey sm9 62 degree
  • M grind

I am a golf club junkie, a tinkerer, an addict of the promise of new tech. But this means my golf game never has a solid footing to improve. So I will be focusing on swing and golf technique to move my index down for the next 12 months. Wow, that feels long when I write it down. 

Cheers, and may the fairways be with you.

Recently Strolan and I had a throw-down on speed in golf (here) It’s a fun conversation and all, but one of the aspects of the debate that gets overshadowed is that golf is a recreational sport, yet all of the rules are focused and bent towards the 1 percent that cash a check on the sport.

To put this in better perspective, this would be like the Department of Transportation deciding to adopt the rules of NASCAR or Formula One racing for all road going cars.This is of course absurd, although might make your commute more interesting.

Golf is run as if we are all in racing cars and as such we should all adhere to the same rules. We are not. I guarantee you, all race cars. I’m a Toyota Tercel at best. This begs the question: do the people running the show actually know what the business of golf is – I think not. 

The business of golf is the recreational play of the game which comprises 99 percent of the game and includes course management, Equipment manufacture, and instruction/coaching. The tours are entertainment/marketing. No other sport treats its main customer with more disdain.

To illustrate this point let me entertain you with this scenario. The PGA and all other tours collectively decide to stop – no more tour golf. Now how many of you would respond to this by cancelling your next tee time or stop playing golf altogether? Any one? Any one? Bueller? Of course no one would just say “what’s the point of the game if I can’t watch incredibly gifted athletes play it” We would all solder on. 

Now if the inverse were true, that all recreational golfers just gave up the game all at once in some grand collective action, well then, there would not be a tour. Full stop. There is no tour without recreational golfers.

So now that we have established that the recreational golfer is the most important stakeholder what do we do?

Well for starters I suggest going to the equipment guys and ask what they could do outside of the box the current rules put them in. Then maybe survey mens and womens groups on where they are suffering in their play. Essentially get some data so that we can bend the rules and regulations towards the majority of golfers. Less frustration with the game will mean more growth for the game. Which I thought was the whole point.

Now you may be wondering about the Tours. Because if we make the game easier through technology/equipment won’t that mean a 300 yard 8 iron? No, because as Strolan pointed out in our podcast, local rules allow for any of the tech to be excluded as the tours see fit Or as the new CEO of the PGA said, “Making a rule book that is adjusted by the competition committee on an ongoing basis, much like the NFL, is a possibility” and I think they should, as it would give the USGA and other governing bodies in golf the room to focus on the other 99 percent, AKA you and me.

So in conclusion,I will leave you with this small example. If you have a rangefinder with slope (it can calculate the distance change for elevation) it can be used in most competitions because there is a visible off switch for the feature.You cannot use a rangefinder in competition at all on the PGA tour. So how is that different then having hotter drivers or other equipment that is marked in this way, and let the tours decide what makes sense for them? 

But then again what do I know, i’m just the holyduffer. As always may the fairways be with you!

The winter of our discontent is finally over…

The new CEO of the PGA is a veteran of the most popular sport in America, the NFL. This could not have happened at a better time. As the sports entertainment product called PGA golf needs help. 

The obvious stuff is the lackluster fedex cup and events that fail as spectator sports. Then there is the woeful marketing and engagement with and to fans. It is telling that most Youtube golf is more interesting than all but 5 or 6 events on the tour. 

While these problems have long pledged theTour, they are relatively benign compared to the extinction level tandem of player speed and expanding forgiveness of equipment.

As I write this there is a reel on Instagram of Kyle Berkshire hitting  a 330 yard 1 iron and a 249 yard 9 iron at Paynes Valley golf club. While Kyle can peak at 157mph club speed with the driver, he averages 145mph. The only thing that Mr.Berkshre lacks is an elite short game. So golf is safe for now.

That combination of speed and short game skill is going to happen. In fact right now if you are a college athlete with a 330 yard average drive and just average short game skill, coaches don’t need you, because everyone on the team is cranking it out there. In the next 5 years the tour is going to have an avalanche of speed that no ball rollback can fix.

At the same time as swing speed is exploding, so is the ability of manufacturers to make the distance penalty for off center hits go away – compounding the problem. This of course is the only path left for innovation and by extension sales for these companies. By capping driver speed though C.O.R (Coefficient of Restitution) which essentially multiplies club head speed into ball speed, The USGA (United States Golf Association) has left the equipment industry only one out – making the entire club face a sweet spot. The new distance claims are for average distance, because AI is making the center strike, and therefore skill, unnecessary.

The problem at the edge of tomorrow is that every year players get faster and better in all sports, and equipment manufacturers need something to sell. These two juggernauts are destroying the most important part of golf – skill. This flattening of the importance of skill is what all current efforts of distance mitigation are really about. It’s what the groove rule change was about as well.

So how do we protect and increase the test of skill in elite golf?

First, we restrict the expansion of the club head sweet spot. This will at the very least slow the onslaught of player speed as it will matter more to have a dead center strike. 

Second, we must bite the bullet on bifurcation of equipment. As we will illustrate below, this will allow more finite control of the distance on tour, and let golf club innovation transform the average player’s game.This will also allow us to  bring in shorter venues like Marrion, by using local rules to set the COR for the event specifically.

Of course you may be asking “ Why don’t we just roll it back for everybody?”. Well because if we were to do so, that the math would look something like this

Let’s assume that the high end of speed is 145mph and the low end is 135mph. That would give us an average of 140mph. This would mean (140mph x 1.50-COR = 210mph ball speed) 210mph x 1.8 = 378 yard drive. These are all maximized numbers.

Now to bring the distance back to just around today’s numbers (the average drive on the PGA Tour is 302 yards) we would need to roll the driver back to as COR of 1.2. The average driver swing speed for the male amateur is 95mph. So, without bifurcation, this would make the average drive  (95mph x 1.2 =114mph x 1.8 = 205 yards) 205 yards. Compared to 256 yards with the current 1.5 COR.

If we assume that a less extreme speed shift happens at say 125mph – 135mph (130mph average) we get to a COR of 1.3 so that would translate to 222 yards for the am player.. This is of course the result of a perfect strike which is much less likely for the average player.

Even if the average miraculously stays at what the upper end of the tour is now (125mph) that still gets us to a COR of 1.35 which gives our average player a drive of 230 yards on a perfect strike

So I think it’s clear that restricting both levels of players is not going to work. Now what would uncorking the driver for the amateur player look like.

If the driver were to increase to 1.6 COR that would mean that the average drive would go from 256 yards to 273 yards (95mph x 1.6 = 152mph x 1.8) almost 20 more yards, I think I could sell that! If manufacturers could bump up the COR to 1.65 that would give the average golfer a 282 yard drive! 

Golf is a hard game. Making it harder for non professional players is just ludicrous. Allowing the advent of 3D capture, force plates, and advanced biomechanics to steamroll courses is just as batshit crazy. We can’t let the term “hitting it on the screws” be made obsolete by super computers either. This leaves us with only one option – bifurcation of equipment. 

This will make sense for the Pings and Titleist of the world; they can  increase the sweet spot speed or COR for the amateur ranks and have something to sell – more distance. The PGA will have control over how speed effects the game and classic venues become viable again. You could even let the higher COR equipment out on the Champions tour to add some sizzle to that tour as well.

There you have it, the holyduffer’s take on the state of golf. Thanks for listening, and we will see you down the fairway.

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