What's in my bag

As of May 2012:

Driver: Taylor Made R9 460 10.5 loft ($135 +$10 shipping, New from eBay in August 2010)

Fairway woods 3~7 fairway: King Cobra SZ (3-wood offset: $35, used from eBay in April 2011, 5 & 7 woods: $75 each, New in 2007 or earlier, all re-gripped late 2011)

Hybrid 4-iron: Callaway Big Bertha Diablo (~$55 New in 2011)

Irons: 5 ~ PW: Mizuno MX-23 ($204 +$20 shipping for 3~PW, used from eBay in April 2010, re-gripped in April 2012)

Wedges: Cartbite Gap Wedge 52 ($25 New from eBay around 2003), Cleveland SW TourAction 56 ($25 New from Meijer around 2003), both re-gripped late 2011.

Putter: Knight Black Velvet 33 (~$25 from Meijer around 2003)

Balls: Titleist Pro-V1/X, Taylor Made Black TP/Burner, Bridgestone B-330S (to try B-330 RXS)

Broke 80 on Memorial Day !!!

On Memorial Day 2012, I played near perfect (for myself anyway) golf, and broke 80 for the first time, by a big margin, at Crooked Tree (white tee).

Score: 75 (38/37)

Starting at 10th hole:

5 3 4 4 4 3 4 5 5

6 3 5 4 2 5 3 6 4

1 birdie, 13 par, 3 bogie, 1 double bogie.

Fairway: 10/14

GIR: 11/18

33 total putts (1 3-putt for double bogie, 4 1-putt, but missed a 5~6 feet putt for birdie)

3 up and down for par

After speeding up back-swing (thanks to Tour Tempo Golf), I gained a lot of distance recently, especially for driver. During this round of today, all my driving were above 210 yards. Most of them were about 220~240 yards, with 3 about 260 yard (downhill). Even a couple of off-center hits went above 210 yards.

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Other rounds in May 2012 were played at Glenview, not bad, but none could be compared to today's round.

May 12: 85 (44/41) West/East

8 par, 7 bogie, 3 double bogie

Fairway: 11/14

GIR: 8/18

36 total putts (2 3-putts, 2 1-putt)

1 up and down for par

May 19: 84 (43/41) South/West

8 par, 9 bogie, 2 double bogie

Fairway: 6/14

GIR: 8/18

34 total putts (3 3-putts for bogie, 5 1-putt)

3 up and down for par

May 26: 86 (43/43) West/East

1 birdie, 7 par, 6 bogie, 3 double bogie, 1 triple bogie

Fairway: 7/14

GIR: 8/18

37 total putts (3 3-putts, 2 1-putt, but missed a 5-feet putt for birdie)

1 up and down for par (actually 2 putts from off green)

Personal Best: 82 on May 5, 2012

Glenview (West/East) on May 5, 2012: 82
1 birdie, 7 pars, 9 bogie, 1 double bogie
13/14 fairway hit, 7/18 GIR, 34 putts (2 3-putts, 4 1-putt)

The 2 3-putts were from both about 15~25 feet, and should have been avoided...

Previous personal best in 2009 and 2010: 83.

Tour Tempo Golf

I am determined to increase swing speed, so I bought a swing speed radar in early April. At the same time I found a book on Amazon called "Tour Tempo Golf", which claims the last secret of golf revealed: all tour players spend 0.9 to 1.2 second from takeaway to impact, and the ratio of the time from takeaway to the top to the time from the top to impact is 3:1 (or 21:7 video frames, or 24:8, 27:9).

I knew my swing is pretty slow, with nice and easy takeaway always in mind. After I videotaped my own swing, it is still a surprise to find out my own ratio is about 70:15, and the swing speed is at most 80 mph. After I deliberately sped up my swing, the ratio is now improved to about 42:14. The swing speed for driver can reach 91 mph now. There is still room to improve, and I hope I will get to 30:10, and upper 90s mph.

I tried my new faster swing at the driving range. Almost immediately I hit some significant longer drives. Except for some occasional shots pushed to left, most shots were pretty straight.

This was also successfully carried over to golf courses. Shot 85 at Blue Ash for the first time to complete 18 holes there (previously play front-9 only once).

2012 Golf Season Started

Scored 90 for first round of 2012 at Glenview on March 24. This past winter was very warm, and the golf season could have started much earlier...

The green speed was ridiculously slow due to the rain and insufficient mowing, and it led to poor putting. Also dropped 2 balls into water with Hybrid-4 at 2 Par-3 holes. Otherwise I could have easily broken 90.

One more thing that is worth noting: it is my first time that I got the ball backspin on the green from pitching (South Hole #8), and the putt went in for a par.

Score summary: 3 pars, 3 double bogies, 12 bogies.

Swing/Ball Position Adjustment

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my left arm bended too much at the top of backswing. So I tried to keep it a little bit more straight. I made this adjustment on the golf course during a round, but it did not work well. I could not hit the ball solidly. Towards the end of the round, I realized I also need to adjust ball position, from observation of the divots I made.

In the following week, I went to the driving range twice, move the ball a little more forward. Suddenly everything worked out. This combination of swing/ball position adjustments changed my ball flight higher, and also increased carry distance. The overall distance does not change much, because the ball does not roll as much as before. I think this is a big improvement for me.

Now the ball position is a little forward than the center between my feet for mid-irons (5~7 irons), and at the center for short irons (8~P). Before the change, it was at the center even for 5-iron.


Mid-Season Score Summary

So far in 2011 I have played for about 15 rounds, about 6 rounds below 90, 4 rounds between 90~92, and 3 rounds between 93~95, and 2 between 96~99.
Broke 90 (88) for the second round played at Walden Ponds.

My First Eagle

I got my first eagle (2 shots, no putting) on Hole 6 (Par 4) at Glenview West on April 23, 2011. From the first cut on the right side of fairway, with a good downhill lie, about 105 to 110 yard to the pin, I hit a perfect 9-iron. The ball bounced twice on the green, and then rolled straight into the hole.