Golf Swing and Fitness plus Taylor Made R9 B stamps

Since having babies the priorities have changed.  A little.  I was still working on my swing and fitness.  The sleep deprivation made me susceptible to injury and road rage.  I can live with the rage but I hurt my neck again.  The body needs sleep to heal.

During the winter break I changed my irons.  I bought a set of Taylor Made R9 B stamps.  I was searching for an iron with no offset and liked these.  I put midsize grips on them which are 15 grams heavier than standard (extra wrap on the low hand) so I had to put some lead on the head to get to D1 swing weight.  It took me some tinkering to figure it out but I am enjoying them now.  I went to No Bogeys to have the irons built.  I put Project X 6.5 in the irons.  I also put a Vokey 46* wedge in for my pitching wedge.  I had all the shafts installed with the spine facing the target.

While I was there I started talking to Cary Schoen.  A teacher with TrackMan who gives lessons in the shop.  He had a some interesting things to say about the golf swing.  After a couple of visits and a demo lesson I was hooked.  We spent 7 lessons on the back swing, barely hitting balls.  I was a little frustrated but started seeing improvement early on.  Then we had a downswing lesson and after that I started striping it.  Cary teaches some Homer Kelly stuff and Ben Hogan stuff.  You can see my swing before and after below.

My posture was of some concern.  club face is shut.  I cross the line.  The follow through is disconnected and super high.  You can see where the club exits.

The next two are practice swings.  These swings are a great example of what Cary is teaching and what I am trying to do.

Here I am getting closer with a club in my hand.

Twins!! We had twins!

Golf was put on hold for the beginning on the year. We had a boy and a girl on Christmas Day.  It has been exciting and exhausting.

12 pound gain in 60 days

I have reached 170 lbs.  I thought I could get to this weight quicker than 60 days.  I obviously was not eating enough.  My sites are set on 175.  If I concentrate on the eating I should reach that weight before the first of the year.  My strength gains have increased weekly.  I have noticed some muscular size.  My legs, shoulders and back have noticeable growth.  I will be curious to see if my club head speed has increased with my strength gain.  If it does that will be an added benefit.

Titleist 913 D3 "slider" experiment with pictures

I believe that the invention of lead tape has allowed players to manipulate their golf clubs for decades.  TaylorMade built drivers with moveable weights and was credited for something that players have been doing for decades.

I have been trying to find a setup that will lower my trajectory and reduce spin.  With the 913 D3 Titleist driver I have experimented with a few different concepts.  First I adjusted the weights in the back of the driver.  I liked the 4 gram white dot weight.  I felt that I noticed a slightly lower trajectory with the 4 gram weight vs the 9 gram weight.  Titleist puts the different weights in the head to offset total swing weight based on shaft length.  They claim that the different weights will not alter the trajectory.

My latest experiment is the 913 D3 Titleist "Slider".  I was fortunate to play with two engineers recently and they explained the concept of the TM SLDR.  I also discovered that TM staff players are making adjustments to the SLDR by reducing the amount of weight in the driver.  The weighted slider portion of the driver is not removable but the staff players are having their drivers built with much lighter sliders.  The stock slider is 20 grams and the staffers are putting in a piece that is 8-10 grams.  With this new info I present the 913 D3 Titleist "slider".  I learned that having the weight low and towards the leading edge would create the effect I am after.  I have played 3 rounds with this new setup and I feel like I hit lower knuckle balls.  That makes me happy.  The sound and feel is completely different after I removed the weight from the tail end of the driver.  I tried with the two strips of lead but felt that was to heavy.

I am playing a Diamana White board 63x in with this setup.  This is the original white board with flower band.

The two strips of lead was to heavy.

Muscle and strength gain in the off season.

I had a tough finish to my season.  Neck injury forced me to withdraw from a couple of events.  I am feeling healthy now and I am on a mission to add 10 pounds to my little frame to help prevent further injuries.  I have been at 158 for the last 5 years.  That is mainly due to my routine in the gym and diet all reflecting a maintenance phase.  I have decided to change things up and I gained 6 pounds in the first 12 days.  The main reason for the gain is the increased calorie intake.  4 Hour Body is a book by Tim Ferris.  This book is the bible of body composition.  He wrote a chapter on how he gained 34 pounds in 4 weeks.  I am following his advice with some slight adjustments.  His main point is that nearly all people overtrain which does not allow them maximum growth and gain.  My workout routine looks like this:

First off every rep is 10 seconds.  5 seconds up and 5 seconds down.  Every set is to failure.  8 to 12 reps for each exercise.  Minimum rest of 3 minutes between sets.  3 to 4 days rest between workouts.  Concentrate on eating.

leg press
cable rows then superset with db pull overs
kettle bell swing 50 reps
db shoulder press
bosu ball abs
dips super set to cable flys for chest

add ons are:
drag curls
rear delt with cables
hip abduction for stability

my goal is to gain 10 pounds by the end of the year and then try to maintain a 4 to 5 pound lean muscle mass gain through next season.

Trophy Lake Golf and Casting Club, Washington. Titleist 913D3

After a long two days of travel, a practice round and then the qualifier for the Sahalee Am Scott and I ended up here, the first tee at Trophy Lake.  This place is AWESOME!  In Washington outside of Seattle, this gem of a golf course is off the beaten path.  We did not see many other players.  The place was very quiet.  The course was cut out of a forest.  It was...serene.  The yardage was near 7200 which included some long holes.  The course received lots of rain through the night and early morning so it played much longer.  We really lucked out on the weather.  When we decided to trek over there it was still raining but the day was absolutely perfect for our round of golf.  It started pouring on our drive home.  I think that area gets about 60 days of good weather a year.  We got 2 of them.

Tall pines surrounded every hole.

At times it looked like an enchanted forest.

Swinging out of my shoes on a par 5.  Scott hits it 290 in the air so I am always chasing.  I had 4 birdies on the day and kept the ball in play pretty well.  I am hitting the Titleist 913D3 8.5 with a Graphite Design Tour AD 7S tipped 1 inch.  The flex was 6.5.  It seems to fit my swing just fine.  My driver club head speed average is 110 mph.  I play the ProV1x.

Scenery on the course.

Some fly fishing after the round.  I wanted to take advantage of everything I could that day.  We had a 7:40 flight out of Seattle that night and we made it thanks to my impersonation of Mario Andretti.  We rented a Nissan Altima Coupe.  It was pretty fun to drive.  More fun than the cherry red Impala we had in Chicago.

We stopped at Gig Harbor on the way to the course.  Instagram helped me edit this photo.  We ate at Kelly's for breakfast and the food was excellent.  I had a smoked salmon omelette with capers and coffee from a local roaster.  Satisfaction was achieved.  Gig Harbor seemed like a nice vacation spot.

Scott is about to launch this ball into orbit.  Another drive over 300 yards.  It's obvious he can hit it well with lag like that and a very grounded base.  Great footwork.  It would be nice to be 6 foot 4.  He is hitting the Titleist 913D3 8.5 (white weight) with a Graphite Design Tour AD 7X.  He plays the Titleist ProV1x.

Titleist 913 Hybrid H-d 18

Hook machine:  I've had this hybrid for a year and I have hated from day 1. Every swing I make is an anti hook swing. It's finally out if the bag. 

I went with a toursauce favorite, Titleist. What I like most about this hybrid is I can adjust the lie angle .75 flat. That equals anti hook. It's in the bag for next weeks Sahalee Am. 

Monterey Peninsula CC

1st hole on the shore course. Downhill par 5.

There were deer in every hole. 

234 par 3 on the shore. 

Tap in birdie.  In the practice round of course. 

My caddie, Nicolai. Also my cousin. 

Par 3. 175 yards. 

Monterey Peninsula CC Score Cards

California State Amateur at Monterey Peninsula CC

I am very excited to be playing in the CSA at MPCC.  I played my first practice round at the dunes course yesterday. The course is very well maintained, minty. The greens are firm and running about 13.  You have to stay below the hole. 

This hole is a 177 yard par 3.  As you can see you can't go right. The wind is into and slightly from the right at about 15mph. The green is fairly large compared to the others on the course but they are all very undulating and have defined sections. 

Warming up on their second range, Point Joe.

3 wood up the hill on number 11.  This is a blind shot, dogleg left with a large fairway and the beach right behind you. It's June and the temperature never broke 55.

Another par 3. 186 yards. 

Original Penguin

These new Original Penguin shorts fit great. I like the leg on these because they are more tapered than most other brands. I am wearing a polo from their golf collection in this photo. It is made with the stay dry fabric. I like the cotton polos as well.  They have a nice fitted look. 

More of the Original Penguin shorts. I want them in every color. 

Golf swing analysis with video. Drills.

I have been working on keeping the club in front of me during the swing.  I was getting the club and my hands way behind at the top of the swing.  My hands were also very high at the top.  This started causing me to pull hard from the top and kind of cast the club early and come over the top a little.  My divots were toe heavy and pointing left.  This drill has really helped keep the club in front of me which has also improved the plane of the club head through the swing.  As it turns out the plane of the club head is much more important than the plane of the shaft.  Just remember that when you are drawing lines on your shaft.  The drill also helped square the divots, my hands are closer to my body at impact.  In the video you can see the right elbow staying in front at the top of the back swing, it does not slide past the seem in my shirt.  The club exits in a much lower position which is something I work on. 

In this video I am making a swing thinking of the towel drill without the towel under the arms.  The swing is getting longer here and you can see I was a little off balance at the end.  Aside from the lack of balance I love this swing.

This is my full swing.  I prefer the swing above.  I like the shorter backswing.   My club does not cross the line.  The interesting thing is that the ball went the same distance in both shots.  I am also flighting the ball a bit lower with this drill.  That is because my plane has shallowed on the way down and with the shorter backswing I have more shaft lean at impact, greater lag.  I will post some face on shots which should show the increased lag.

Titleist Vokey SM4 58.06

After much debate and experimentation I decided to go with the proven winner.  I put the S300 shaft in the wedge.  Danny Kupfer grinded the heel of the club some.  Through my experiments I noticed that the wedges with even slightly more bounce gave me trouble in the bunker and on tight lies.  In the bunker I felt like I could not get as much spin on the ball.  With this club, low bounce, I can "pick" the ball out of the sand and spin it.  In the following photos you will notice how low the leading edge is to the ground.  The picture was taken on bermuda grass that was tightly mowed.

The right wedge for you, more importantly for me.

When you are comfortable with your wedges you can hit shouts without doubt.  Confidence.  On the PGA tour those guys are confident with their wedge shots.  I am still trying to get their.

After reading the post below I have spent some time hitting the Taylormade ATV wedge.  I like it.  At impact i feel the common Taylormade "crunch".  It seems to go through the turf easily.  I used multiple shot selections and felt very comfortable with this wedge.  The big question remains:  what shaft to use?  The wedges are all so similar, you just need to find the right shaft.

I thought it was interesting to read how the grooves were less important to spin than the milling on the face of the wedge.  The milling on the Vokey wedges comes off in about a month but I am still capable of producing spin on the ball.  I guess the Trackman would answer the question of how much less spin.

Off to Roger Dunn to get the Vokey 58.12.  Maybe I will pick out a Taylormade ATV as well.  Roger Dunn has a 90 day return policy so I can try equipment from large manufacturers.  I wish Scor had some wedges at Dunn.

Ultimate Spin Wedge Shootout

My teacher Billy McKinney sent this article. Ultimate Spin Wedge Shootout The Line Up We should all be looking to spin the ball around the greens. Which of the current crop of wedges will give us the best chance to do that? If you have read any of my previous research on wedges you will know that friction between the face and the ball plays a huge role, not only in generating spin, but also in lowering trajectory – both vitally important forcontrol. Milled Face The most important part of the clubface of any wedge is not the grooves, but the texturing of the flat areas between thegrooves. Keep in mind that the primary purpose of grooves is to channel “matter” away from being caught between the flat areas and the ball – they are not in place to create spin. When you look carefully at the flat areas between the grooves of your wedge you should see some fine milling which looks like corduroy to me. Most club manufacturers will mill the clubface of their premium wedges and it makes a massive difference to the control and ball flight. The idea behind the test was to see which wedge generated the better grip between face and ball. I had four very new 58 degree wedges available for the test: Titleist Vokey SM4 with a DG Spinner shaft – conforming grooves with standard mill pattern on face Ping Gorge Tour with a DG Spinner shaft – conforming “gorge” grooves with standard mill pattern on face Callaway X Series Jaws CC with a stock steel shaft – additional conforming grooves with no apparent milling on face TaylorMade ATV with a KBS shaft – conforming grooves with two-way mill pattern on face You may notice that the wedges had differing shafts – I obviously would have preferred to have had all the clubs built to the exact same specs, but that was not feasible for this test. Apologies to all Cleveland Golf fans – would love to have had a Cleveland wedge in the mix, but did not have a new version. I had four golf professionals each hit four shots with each wedge. All shots were hit off a mat in order to limit friction being interrupted by matter being caught between face and ball. Titleist ProV1 golf balls were used and each shot had to land somewhere between 40 and 60 yards (ideally at 50 yards). The clubface was cleaned often even though it never appeared to need it. The “normalize” feature on TrackManwas off. Here are the results: TaylorMade ATV 58 Titleist Vokey SM4 58 Ping Gorge Tour 58 Callaway X Series Jaws CC 58 ATV 7365 rpm average Vokey 7210 rpm average Gorge 7193 rpm average Jaws 7163 rpm average As you can see the ATV wedge led the way in generating the highest spin of the four – albeit by a slender 2%. If I was a betting man I would have bet the ATV would generate the most spin as I have always loved the two-way milling treatment on the face. I would also have placed the Jaws wedge at the bottom of the pack, as no matter how many groove edges come in contact with the ball, there is way more flat surface area contacting the ball and it should be milled. If you do take one thing from this research let it be the following: A fresh wedge with a clean, milled clubface will allow you to generate more spin and a lower trajectory – both important factors in controlling your golf ball around the greens.  Thanks to Zack, Mark, Rick and Joe for your help with this article!