3Jack Prepares for Golf - Part I

As some of you may already know, I will be playing in a Florida State Golf Association Mid-Amateur Qualifier on Monday the 19th at Shingle Creek Golf Club. I wanted to go thru my overall gameplan to give an idea as to how I approach these tournaments. Here, in part I, I will go over the equipment.

Driver: Adams 9064LS 10.5* loft, 45” V2 Talamonti PD-70 X Shaft (X-Stiff)

3-wood: Adams Fast10 15* loft, 42.5” V1 Talamonti PD-70 TourX shaft w/Harrison ShotMaker F insert

Hybrid: Mizuno Fli-Hi CLK 20* loft, 39.75” True Temper DG Hybrid Shaft (stiff)

3 & 4-iron: Wishon 555C

5-PW: Wishon 555M

Iron Specs: +1/2” KBS Tour shafts (stiff), 1* flat, standard lofts

SW: Miura K-Grind, 56* loft, +1/2” KBS Wedge Shaft (stiff)

LW: Ping Tour-S Rustique, 60* loft, KBS Wedge shaft (stiff)

Putter: Edel Columbia, Custom Made, 72* lie angle, 3* loft, 34 inches long




Ball: Srixon Z-Star

We will be taking carts (mandatory) and I believe the GPS system will be working along with being able to bring our own GPS or Rangefinder (that doesn’t have slope) for the tournament. I don’t plan on using anything for the tournament other than their own GPS. My rangefinder has the slope edition. I might wind up using my dad’s Bushnell Neo GPS unit that he has.

I believe that my statistical findings are very accurate with regards to this qualifier. The golfer’s who perform the best in these categories (in order), will likely yield the best scores:

- Danger Zone Play (175-225 yards)
- Putting
- Driving
- Short Game (1-20 yards off the green)

From what I have researched, typically the best Danger Zone players have a setup of:

Driver
3-wood
5-wood/Hybrid/2-iron
3-PW
SW
LW

I feel the most confident with the setup I have right now.

Here’s a rough guestimate on the amount of full swings I will take with each club.

Club…………………# Swings

Driver…………………12
3-wood…………………4
Hybrid………………….2
3-iron…………………..1
4-iron…………………..0
5-iron…………………..3
6-iron…………………..2
7-iron…………………..1
8-iron…………………..4
9-iron…………………..1
PW……………………..1
SW……………………..2
LW……………………..0

Like I stated, it’s a rough estimate. Obviously, I have to hit the ball pretty good and things like the weather can greatly impact what I need to hit.

Where Shingle Creek is a bit different is that the 4 different 3-wood shots are not all on par-5’s. Instead, they will likely be the 2nd shot on #2 and #12 (par-5’s) and then off the tee on #3 and #9 (par-4’s).

The 3-wood is the club I’m the most skeptical with at this point because the Titleist 910F-d 3-wood I have is not performing to my expectations. I do have an Adams Fast10 3-wood that I hit a little too high for my tastes, but I recently removed my Harrison ShotMaker insert from one shaft and installed it into the 3-wood. I think this could work quite well. If anything, the tee shots concern me more with the 3-wood than the shots off the deck (which is typical). I plan on playing a practice round Saturday and seeing how the Adams 3-wood works off the tee. If it doesn’t, the worst case scenario is to play the Titleist 910F-d 3-wood off the tee and hit hybrid only off the deck.

The Danger Zone shots are always hard to predict, but we can generally judge how they will play on the par-3’s. Here’s the distances off the back tees on each of the par-3’s.

#5 – 225 yards

#7 – 185 yards

#15 – 197 yards

#17 – 217 yards

The clubs and the number of full swings was based on the back tees. From what I’ve seen out of other FSGA events, they are likely to move the back tees up on the very long par-3’s. I will have to test the next tees forward out in the practice round, but here are their distances.

#5 – 225 yards (was a hybrid) up to 204 yards (4 or 5-iron)

#15 – 197 yards (was a 5-iron) up to 178 yards (6 or 7-iron)

#17 – 217 yards (was a 3-iron) up to 199 yards (4 or 5-iron)

I estimate that I am guaranteed 4 shots in the Danger Zone due to the par-3’s. After that, probably 2 more shots on #6 and #14. Obviously, I would like to eliminate those 2 extra Danger Zone shots if I can and a good day of driving the ball could accomplish that.

The other piece of equipment I’m a bit skeptical about is the golf ball.


I believe that I tend to putt and hit shots around the green better with the softer Titleist ball. But, I also believe I’m better off the tee and with the Danger Zone shots with the Srixon Z-Star. Thus, I wound up going with the Srixon ball for this tournament. If it doesn’t work out, then I may switch to a Pro V1x for the next tournament. Although I do believe I can putt quite well with the Srixon as that is the ball I used when I first played Shingle Creek and shot 68 (made some monster putts that day).

The biggest gap I have in clubs is between the PW (48* loft) and the Sand Wedge (56* loft). But, I estimate that there may only be 3 times where I may get in between these clubs (#10, #12 and #13). From a statistical standpoint, this usually does not make a huge difference as the even on the PGA Tour the leader in shots from this range is hitting these shots about 17 feet to the cup.





UP NEXT, PART II – PRACTICE PLAN





3JACK