Some Hogan Driver Swings...

Look like the same swing, just catching the swing in different parts of the action.  I thought some of you would enjoy.










3JACK

Thinking Man's Guide to Finding Your WITB: Part II

In part II I’ll discuss the 3-wood. Here’s my current 3-wood specs:



Wishon 949MC
15° Loft
57.5° Lie Angle
UST Mamiya VTS Red 75 shaft (X-Stiff)
43-inches long
342 grams (static weight)
D-4 swingweight
2,805 kg/cm2 MOI

These days, even PGA Tour pros consider the 3-wood to be the most difficult club in the bag to hit. This is partially due to the fact that players no longer carry 1 and 2-irons in their bag. The other part is that the golf equipment industry has never quite figured out how to master the 3-wood with the advent of titanium woods. After giving up on titanium for fairway woods, they have resorted to using a more manageable high-strength steel. But, they still struggle with finding a club that reacts well with the turf and that they can hit amply far enough so there is not a humongous gap in yardage between how far they hit the driver and the 3-wood.

With that, I think the focus with the 3-wood should be more along the lines of consistency and accuracy first, then work to figure out the distance. I would also concentrate on being able to hit the 3-wood off the deck. I do believe it’s important for better players to be able to comfortably hit a 3-wood off the tee as too many times they’ll find themselves where they need that 240-260 yard tee shot that doesn’t go further or shorter than that distance and that they can hit very accurately. However, if they can hit it off the deck well, they can always use it on those par-4’s off the tee…they just don’t have to tee it up. I have found with every 3-wood I have ever owned, you will hit it further off the tee than off the deck.

Also, the times we use the 3-wood favor consistency and accuracy as well. We usually use it on par-5’s where we are looking to advance the ball, but generally have enough room that as long as we don’t hit an awful shot, we’ll be okay and can make a birdie. And on those par-4 tee shots with the 3-wood, it’s still a situation where they are typically used on short holes and as long as we don’t leave ourselves with an impeded approach shot, we’ll have an easy short iron into the green.

CLUBHEAD (Wishon 949MC)



With a 3-wood, I think the size and the CoG of the clubhead become much more important. You need a 3-wood clubhead size that you are comfortable with and a CoG that works with your swing to get the ball to launch the right amount.

I chose the 949MC from Wishon Golf because I prefer more of a mid-size 3-wood head. I have the 929HS from Wishon Golf and I actually think I hit that a little further, but again, it’s about consistency and accuracy first. The 929HS has a smaller, shallower head, which I’m not quite accustomed to.

The 949MC and 929HS are designed to have that high-COR head that companies like Taylor Made and Tour Edge advertise. It’s definitely ‘hotter’ off the face. The CoG fits my swing and is a smidgeon higher than the CoG on the 929HS. My problem with the Taylor Made RBZ 3-wood is that it’s a huge head. So I was looking for something in between the 929HS and the Taylor Made RBZ and found a great match in the 949MC. It also has a weight port for me to be able to add weight to the club as well.


LIE AND LOFT (15° & 57.5°)

With the driver, the loft is more important than the lie angle. I would say that they are both about equal with the 3-wood.

The loft is important. Most golfers usually go with a 15° loft or something like a 13° loft. The 13° lofts are often referred to as a ‘3+ wood.’ You should hit the 13° loft further than the 15° loft. And that can make a difference. Since I’m able to hit the driver off the deck very well, it does make a big difference for me to be able to hit that driver about 260-280 off the deck on a par-5. For starters, I no longer have the urged to really go after one on the par-5 tee shot. I can practically reach a lot of par-5’s in 2 shots that are 580 yards or less in length. So, if you can add distance with the 3+ wood and hit it consistently and accurately, go for it.

The only problem with the 3+ wood, even if you hit it accurately and consistently is that you may hit it too far. If you hit it 275 off the tee, you may face par-4’s where you can’t hit it over 265 yards without going into trouble. And from there, your next club…be it a hybrid or long iron…you may not hit long enough to leave yourself with a comfortable second shot. So for me, my bag setup allows me to hit the ball the following in distance:

Driver (off tee): 290-300 yards
Driver (off grass): 260-280 yards
3-wood (off tee): 250-270 yards
3-wood (off grass): 240-260 yards
Hybrid (off tee): 235-250 yards
Hybrid (off grass): 230-245 yards
3-iron: 215-225 yards

So from a gapping standpoint, I have pretty much the yardages all covered about the best I can possibly cover them.

Of course, the lie angle is important as well. However, it’s still not as important as it is with the irons. Why? The 3-wood’s clubhead will have a greater MOI on shots that miss that sweetspot than an iron will. So for the most part, the 3-wood lie angle will probably not vary much from 57° to 58°.


SHAFT (UST Mamiya VTS Red 75 X-Stiff)



I ‘fitted’ myself for this shaft the same way I fitted myself for the driver shaft…I went and used their online system. Although it’s not overly scientific, it did work for me. I think the driver shaft (UST VTS Silver 65x) fits me well and 3-wood shaft was probably easy to match up.

Again, this is where understanding the Shaft Bend Profile helps. If you have trouble launching it up in the air, you will probably need a softer tip section. Trouble hitting it too soft and spinny, you probably need a stiffer tip-section. The weight of the shaft is also crucial here as well, which I will go into a bit.


LENGTH (43 INCHES)

I find the length to be important as well. Usually 3-woods are made around 43 inches long with roughly the same lie angle as the driver. So, we don’t have to worry so much about the waist bend we get at address with the 3-wood too much. However, the length of the shaft can affect the weight of the shaft and the static weight of the club, along with the very important MOI-weight of the club. Remember, the 3-wood is now known as the ‘hardest club in the bag to hit’, so we need to do what we can to improve its consistency. Thus, the length of the 3-wood is very important.

And according to Wishon, you will see NO difference in clubhead speed until the length in the shaft is more than ½-inch. I would recommend for most golfer to NOT have a 3-wood over 43-inches long. In fact, I would go with something about 2-inches shorter than your driver. So, if you hit a 44-1/2” long driver, you may want to look at 42-1/2” 3-woods.


STATIC WEIGHT & SWINGWEIGHT (342 grams & D-4)

As with the driver (and other clubs), you can swing a club faster if the static weight is lighter (provided everything else is the same). However, how far you want to hit the 3-wood and at what cost of losing accuracy and consistency is up to you.


MOI (2,805 kg/cm2)

When fitting for total club MOI (*not* clubhead MOI), we want to fit the driver separately from the fairway woods and the hybrids separately along with the set of irons separately. Most of this has to do with the shaft being used along with the length of the shaft. While the shafts in the driver and 3-wood are similar models made by the same company, they do have different weights and balance points. With the irons, we typically use the same shaft throughout the set. So that’s why we ‘MOI Match’ the irons…making the MOI of all of the irons the same.

As the club gets longer, that will cause the optimal MOI for your swing…if anything…to go up. So, you won’t see the MOI of the 3-wood being more than the MOI of the driver. Or the MOI of the irons being more than the MOI of the 3-wood.

I have been told occasionally that some golfers have found that they hit their 3-wood better when it matches the MOI of their driver. As you can see, my optimal MOI with the 3-wood was only 20 kg/cm2 less than my driver.

As much as I love MOI fitting, I find it the most important in the 3-wood thru 5-iron because that’s where golfers get thrown off the most by clubs whose MOI does not fit their swing. Like I mentioned before, MOI fitting does what swingweight was supposed to do, it just does a far more accurate job.

The MOI of the club is tied into the weight of the clubhead (in this case, 208 grams) and the weight of the shaft (79 grams), along with the length (43 inches) and the balance point of the shaft.

You don’t want to have to add too much weight to the head or hosel because it can throw off the balance of the club. Wishon Golf estimates that you start to see a difference when you add about 12 grams of weight to the head or hosel. That’s a LOT of weight to add.

So, if you look to trim a 3-wood shaft shorter, your MOI will go down. That’s great if you don’t require a lot of MOI to swing the club. But for me, my optimal MOI is at 2,805. I needed to add a little under 9 grams of weight. They don’t make weight ports under 9 grams. I tried 9-grams but that came out about 10 kg/cm2 too heavy. And because I wanted to be EXACT, I wound up adding a 6-gram weight and then about 3 grams of lead tape on the hosel. That’s how I got this:



Although, I cannot see that when I put the club down. But all that has helped me hit the 3-wood consistently well with ample distance. Furthermore, I can hit it from somewhat difficult lies, like downhill and divot lies. The only thing I tend to struggle with is more extreme sidehill lies, but I think that’s due to the length of the club. Either way, for the most part I can consistently advance the ball with this club along with using my driver off the deck. And I think that makes a difference at the end of the day.

Up Next, The Hybrid





3JACK

3Jack Golf's PGA Tour Rundown - Week 18

Ricky Fowler wins his first PGA Tournament at the Wells Fargo Championship.



Here’s what I stated about Fowler in 3Jack Golf’s ‘2011 Pro Golf Synopsis’:

“While Steve Marino is often credited as the ‘best player without a win on the PGA Tour’, I believe that title should go to Rickie Fowler. While his ranking in Advanced Total Driving is unimpressive, he was actually 56th in this ranking in 2010. He happened to get off to a very slow start, ranking 159th at one point and had his work cut out for him just to wind up finishing 93rd. But, I think it’s safe to say that he drove the ball great the last 2-3 months of the season and has the potential to be an elite driver of the ball on Tour.”

Fowler runs hot and cold, but it’s mostly with his short game. This year he’s 81st in Short Game play, up from 125th last year. However, he has not putted well as he’s currently 140th in Putts Gained, down from 31st last year. In fact, even though he won the Wells Fargo Championship, he was only 30th in the field in Putts Gained, so it wasn’t like he was shooting lights out.

Here’s how my picks fared at the Wells Fargo:

Keegan Bradley: Missed Cut (33/1)
Zach Johnson: t-69th (33/1)
Webb Simpson: 4th (33/1)
Brendon De Jonge: t-40th (80/1)
Matt Every: Did Not Play (125/1)

Value Pick: Daniel Summerhays: Missed Cut (200/1)

Here are my picks for the Players Championship:

Steve Stricker: 33/1
Louis Oosthuizen: 40/1
Jim Furyk: 40/1
Graeme McDowell: 66/1
Chad Campbell: 150/1

VALUE PICK: Brendon De Jonge (175/1)

Here’s the current rankings:


ADVANCED TOTAL DRIVING



1. Bubba Watson
2. Graeme McDowell
3. John Rollins
4. Jason Dufner
5. Boo Weekley
6. Roberto Castro
7. Rory McIlroy
8. Tom Gillis
9. Hunter Mahan
10. Tiger Woods


178. Patrick Sheehan
179. Nick O'Hern
180. Tommy Biershenk
181. Billy Hurley III
182. Joe Ogilvie
183. Matt Bettencourt
184. Derek Lamely
185. Stephen Gangluff
186. David Duval
187. Ryuji Imada


PUTTS GAINED (VIA PGATOUR.COM)

1. Bo Van Pelt
2. Aaron Baddeley
3. David Duval
4. Luke Donald
5. Phil Mickelson
6. Brian Gay
7. Bryce Molder
7. Y.E. Yang
9. Michael Thompson
10. Ben Crane


178. Patrick Sheehan
179. Chris Kirk
180. Boo Weekley
181. Ricky Barnes
182. Heath Slocum
183. Chad Campbell
184. Nick O'Hern
185. Greg Owen
186. Scott Brown
187. Scott Stallings

ADJUSTED SHORT GAME PLAY

1. Steve Stricker
2. Ian Poulter
3. Jerry Kelly
4. Kevin Kisner
5. Sean O'Hair
6. Jeff Overton
7. Jason Dufner
8. Greg Owen
9. Johnson Wagner
10. Patrick Sheehan


178. Kevin Na
179. William McGirt
180. Shaun Micheel
181. Jhonattan Vegas
182. Cameron Beckman
183. Gavin Coles
184. Chris Kirk
185. Bo Van Pelt
186. Angel Cabrera
187. Charlie Beljan

BIRDIE ZONE PLAY (75-125 YARDS)



1. Steve Stricker
2. Sergio Garcia
3. Padraig Harrington
4. Johnson Wagner
5. Brendon de Jonge
6. Jason Bohn
7. Garth Mulroy
8. Jeff Maggert
9. Jim Furyk
10. Lee Westwood


173. D.J. Trahan
174. Kris Blanks
175. Charlie Beljan
176. Billy Hurley III
177. Jonas Blixt
178. Scott Stallings
179. Jamie Lovemark
180. Jhonattan Vegas
181. Stephen Gangluff
182. Angel Cabrera


SAFE ZONE PLAY (125-175 YARDS)



1. Lee Westwood
2. Robert Allenby
3. Graeme McDowell
4. Jeff Maggert
5. Steve Wheatcroft
6. Heath Slocum
7. Angel Cabrera
8. Chris Kirk
9. Steve Stricker
10. Zach Johnson

178. Ryuji Imada
179. Mark Anderson
180. J.B. Holmes
181. Edward Loar
182. Matt Jones
183. Derek Lamely
184. Troy Kelly
185. Jamie Lovemark
186. Billy Hurley III
187. Briny Baird

DANGER ZONE PLAY (175-225 YARDS)



1. Louis Oosthuizen
2. Chad Campbell
3. Steve Stricker
4. Gary Woodland
5. Bubba Watson
6. Justin Rose
7. Nick Watney
8. Tiger Woods
9. Kevin Stadler
10. Bo Van Pelt


178. Ted Potter, Jr.
179. Joe Ogilvie
180. Tom Pernice Jr.
181. Stephen Ames
182. Lee Janzen
183. Richard H. Lee
184. Steve Wheatcroft
185. Ryuji Imada
186. Nick O'Hern
187. Edward Loar





3JACK

The Thinking Man's Guide to Finding Your WITB - Part i

I often get asked clubfitting questions and what clubs I recommend and such. I also get asked about my current bag and what I’m gaming. So in this series, I wanted to go over step-by-step, my bag and its specs and why I chose it that way.

First, I’ll start off with the driver. Here’s the current specs of the driver:

Wishon 919THI
10° Loft
57.5° Lie Angle
45-1/8” long
UST VTS Silver 65 shaft (X-Stiff)
321 gram static weight
D-3 swingweight
2,825 kg/cm2 MOI





The Clubhead (Wishon 919THI)

Even though I sell Wishon equipment, I do feel there are plenty of quality OEM clubheads out there. The problem I see with the OEM equipment is for the most part, they really don’t provide an advantage of one head over the other. It becomes more about personal preference and the way the club looks and feels versus actual performance and engineering advantages. A golfer may want to find a driver head with a higher or lower Center of Gravity in order to launch the ball better, but that just suits their swing more than having an actual engineered advantage.

Where I feel the 919THI driver head has an advantage is:

- Highest club*head* MOI on the market
- Graduated Roll Technology

We’ve discussed this is previous blog posts. But, the sweetspot is NOT an area on the face like this diagram infers:



The sweetspot is actually about the size of a needle point. The ‘area’ that is often misinterpreted as the ‘sweetspot’ is actually the part of the clubface that has the highest MOI. Meaning that when you hit a shot off-center, the clubhead will twist less in those areas with the highest MOI. The Wishon 919THI has a MOI of 5,000+ g-cm2. Now, there have been drivers with that high of a MOI, but they had that radical box shape which the Wishon 919THI does not have.

I do think there is an advantage in ‘Graduated Roll Technology.’ That means that for the most part, the loft on the clubface will be just about the same throughout the entire face. Here’s a diagram showing the difference between a club with GRT and without GRT.



So, where is the advantage?

I think the main advantage comes from shots that are hit below the sweetspot. I can hit these shots further than with the OEM clubs because the loft angle is the same instead of having a lower loft angle which reduces the distance. The difference probably isn’t that much on shots hit above the sweetspot as even with GRT, the loft does increase a little as you get near the top of the clubface.

The other advantage is that I can hit this quite well and easily off the deck. I think that’s an advantage very few golfers have at their exposal because they don’t generate enough clubhead speed (115+ mph) in order to get a non-GRT driver to get enough air time. I try to only hit the driver off the deck if I have no worse than a decent lie, so thin or downhill lies are just about out of the equation. But, I can still hit off most of the lies and do it with pretty good control. Off the tee I’m probably hitting it 290-300 yards, off the deck, 265-280 yards.


LOFT AND LIE ANGLE (10° & 57.5°)

The loft is actually much more important to fit for than the lie angle. First, we have to understand that there is no ‘hot spot’ on the driver that is near the top of the clubface and towards the toe. The real hot spot is the sweetspot. I agree with Wishon on this point, I think golfers wind up playing with too low of a lot and then to counter that, they hit the ball too high up on the clubface. It’s perfectly fine to hit up on the driver, just hit up on the driver while hitting the sweetspot.

With loft, you want to base that upon your clubhead speed first, THEN your attack angle. And in reality, if your attack angle is not steeper than -2° or more upward than +2°, than it will have minimal effect on the amount of loft that is optimal for your golf swing.

I think the problem golfers struggle with is that they should first look to fit a driver buy finding what they can to optimize DISTANCE. Once they find the optimal distance, then they can go to finding optimal accuracy and consistency.

But, I think you find optimal distance by optimizing the launch and carry conditions FIRST, then worry about spin rate and roll. Too many golfers do it backwards, worrying about spin rate before worrying on the launch conditions.

At the time I purchased this club, my clubhead speed was 108-110 mph, which called for a 10° loft. Now it’s more in the 110-113 mph range which calls for somewhere between 9.0° and 9.75°.

As far as lie angle goes, it’s relatively unimportant unless you have a very high handle or low handle at impact and are catching shots noticeably off the heel or the toe. Or if you dramatically cut down the length of the driver or add length to the driver. Otherwise, it’s pretty much okay to keep the lie angle between 57° to 58°.


SHAFT AND LENGTH (UST VTS Silver 65X, 45-1/8” long)



If you really want to take a step into the right direction of discovering what shaft is best for you, you need to start focusing on the shaft bend profile and stop thinking about what the shaft labels say and what they measure on frequency machines. You will find that you will stop thinking of shafts as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but more along the lines of what shafts fit your swing

I was fortunate to get lucky as I came across the UST Mamiya VTS shaft by talking to Director of R&D, Michael Guerrette about these shafts. One thing I found was that from a flex perspective, I favored more X-Stiff shafts. But, I was running into a problem where X-Stiff shafts tend to be too boardy and Stiff flex shafts tend to launch too high and spin too much.

I was then told about these shafts which were designed with a lot more torque. In the end, I came away with a winner. My guess is that these shafts are less stiff towards the butt section while being stiffer at the tip section. So, they don’t feel boardy and they don’t spin like a top.

Still, get to learn about shaft bend profiles and how the stiffness of the shaft along different locations of the shaft can affect how the ball flies. There are other parts to understand as well, like the importance of the balance point of the shaft.

I’ve discussed driver shaft lengths in a previous post and I’m a shade over 6’3” tall and use a 45-1/8” shaft. Bubba Watson uses a 44-3/4” driver. So if you are shorter than me, in all likelihood you will be better off with a driver under 45 inches long.


STATIC WEIGHT (321 GRAMS), SWINGWEIGHT (D-3) AND MOI (KG/CM2)

All of these facets of the driver are important, although I would rate swingweight the least important. Why? Because measuring the MOI of the entire club (not just the clubhead) does what swingweight was supposed to do. It just does a much better job of it.

Swingweight is supposed to be a measurement and formula used to measure what the heft of the club will feel like when you are swinging it. Thus, swingweight matching was designed to get each club in the bag to the same swingweight so each club will ‘feel’ the same when the golfer swings it.

The problem is that swingweight didn’t account for factors quite accurately enough and that’s where MOI comes in. The proper MOI will allow a golfer to reduce their face contact dispersion.




With the driver, I was able to reduce the face contact dispersion quite a bit. But, not nearly as much as I could with the 3-wood, hybrid and irons. That’s because the driver is longer and lighter and swung at a higher rate of speed, so control becomes more difficult. I would label MOI fitting as ‘important’ with the driver because it certainly helps and the driver is usually pricey, so it’s better for a golfer to get it right the first time instead of having to pay around with it, looking for the perfect match when all the golfer had to do is find their optimal MOI.

Static weight helps influence the clubhead speed a golfer can generate. Because I can more easily generate clubhead speed than your average golfer, I tend to favor a higher MOI and this tends to allow for a heavier static weight.

The thing golfers need to understand with drivers, is that all of the components matter to some degree. I would highly recommend getting the weight of a driver head. If you have an OEM head, you may want to e-mail the OEM and ask them how much, in grams, the driver head weighs. Mainly because most people do not find their optimal driver with a ‘stock shaft’ and wind up buying a custom shaft or an aftermarket shaft. With that, you need to find your optimal MOI and see what shafts work well, from a weight perspective, with the driver head.


POSSIBLE FUTURE PLANS

I may wind up going with a lower lofted head as my clubhead speed increases. Furthermore, I may experiment with a lighter shaft with a similar bend profile to see if I can keep the MOI the same (2,825 kg/cm2), but make the static weight lighter than 321 grams in order to help increase swing speed while still being able to control the golf club.


Up Next – The 3-wood







3JACK

A Look At the Ryder Cup Standings...

With the season at about the halfway point, I figured we'd take a look at the US Ryder Cup team. Here are the current Ryder Cup standings for the top 15.

1. Bubba Watson
2. Phil Mickelson
3. Hunter Mahan
4. Keegan Bradley
5. Jason Dufner
6. Steve Stricker
7. Tiger Woods
8. Brandt Snedeker
9. Bill Haas
10. Kyle Stanley
11. Johnson Wagner
12. Mark Wilson
13. Matt Kuchar
14. Kevin Na
15. Dustin Johnson

As I’ve discussed before, I believe that the Ryder Cup captain needs to get players who are better putters and Danger Zone players, along with good at avoiding bogeys (instead of making birdies) for the best Ryder Cup team. The trick parts are that he has to take the top-8 in the points standing and getting certain players to fit in the alternate shot format. I really believe that the main focus should be on the alternate shot format because I think the captain who smartly pairs up the alternate shot teams will have a large advantage and can gain valuable points.

Here’s a rundown of each player:

Bubba Watson – He’s going to get into the Ryder Cup. The question becomes how well will he putt the ball at the tournament. He’s currently ranked 159th in Putts Gained. However, he’s also ranked 1st in Adv. Total Driving and 5th in Danger Zone play. As it stands, I would play him in the low-score format and avoid him in the alternate shot format. And if you pair him with a player in the low-score format, make sure to find somebody with a good track record on par-3’s as Bubba is a weak par-3 player.


Phil Mickelson - Having a great year so far with the putter, 3rd in Putts Gained. His driving is still a problem (139th). You can have him in alternate shot, but you better find a good player from the rough to pair him with.

Hunter Mahan – He’s been able to get his driving back (8th) and has putted quite well the past couple of years (currently 39th). But, his Danger Zone play is still questionable (87th). I would probably try and pair him in alternate shot with somebody who finds a lot of fairways so at least when Mahan is in the Danger Zone, he has a much easier shot at hitting it close.

Keegan Bradley - A real superstar who is bound to pick up another victory soon. 15th in Adv. Total Driving, 52nd in Birdie Zone play, 93rd in Safe Zone Play and 106th in Danger Zone Play. But, he’s 28th in both Putts Gained and Short Game play. His iron play was a problem last year, but this year he started out on fire from each of the zones. Cooling off a bit, but that may be due to getting used to some swing changes. For right now, I would try to play him a lot.



Jason Dufner – Having a spectacular year. Known for his ballstriking, he recently made a climb up to 82nd in Putts Gained. Don’t be fooled though, this is the first time all year he’s been in the top-100 in Putts Gained. The reason he’s playing so well is his ballstriking and in particular, he’s 26th in Short Game play. So, he hits a ton of greens and fairways and if he misses a green, he’s great at getting it close. I would think a captain should use him quite a bit, but I would really play it round-to-round with him to get a feel for his putting. He’s probably better off in alternate shot than in low-score. However, you could put him in the low-score format with somebody like Bubba, let Dufner tee off first and pump one down the middle and then let Bubba go full bore and blast one 375+ yards. That would make things a lot tougher for US-killer, Luke Donald.

Steve Stricker – Typically, I would say the problem with Stricker is that he doesn’t play a lot of events, so it’s difficult to judge. However, he has good experience as he’s a proven winner in this format and has the game that makes for a great Ryder Cup partner. They’ll probably want to limit his play because of his age. I would then lean towards him in alternate shot because I think that’s more important.

Tiger Woods – I think his poor week at the Masters took the wind out of his sails, but he’s really having a nice year. Problem is that in the world of Tiger, a ‘nice’ year is the worst year ever for him. The big positive now is that he can hit the driver and hit it well, regardless of what Brandel Chamblee may tell you.

Brandt Snedeker – Notoriously great putter with a really good short game. He’s never been that great of a ballstriker outside his 2011 year and he’s sliding back into that below average ballstriker status this year. What is particularly concerning is his 141st ranking in Danger Zone play. Part of me likes him in alternate shot because he’s young and he has the short game. I would also look for a player who has a good short game to make up for his poor Danger Zone shots. Keegan Bradley may make for a really good partner in alternate shot.



Bill Haas – I wouldn’t want him on the team with the way he’s playing now. His 2011 season was due to great driving and great short game playing with average zone play. I think he does have a legitimately good wedge game, but he has not shown much and his driving of the ball has been very average. Currently ranked 9th on the Ryder Cup list, I would be surprised to see him make the team on points at the rate he is playing at.

Kyle Stanley – I could see taking a chance on him as a pick because he’s a great ballstriker who hits it long and is young. His putting leaves a lot left to be desired, but he does go thru some nice streaks of putting well. He would be about the equivalent of a 2008 Boo Weekley who paired with JB Holmes, threw the Euros fits in the low-score format as Weekley strikes it so well and long that he could out-drive Lee Westwood and still be down the middle, giving Holmes a massive free-rip at the ball.

Johnson Wagner – His ballstriking would make me a little nervous, but he has a great short-game. He has cooled off quite a bit with the putter, being a top-5 putter for some time and now ranked 37th in Putts Gained. I would definitely keep a close eye on him, but he would likely have to get hot again with the putter before I would put him on the team.



Mark Wilson – He’s slipped a little from earlier in the season, but is still putting up some good numbers. His lack of distance would bother me because it makes me wonder if he can play a course well that is US Open-esque long. That’s why I would look to see how well he performs at the US Open. However, in alternate shot he would need somebody that doesn’t miss many greens because he’s 159th in Short Game Play. Either that or a great 5-15 foot putter.

Matt Kuchar – Kuchar should be an obvious captain’s pick if he doesn’t qualify in points. That being said, the captain should hope that Kuchar does qualify so he doesn’t have to ‘waste’ a pick on a player who is obviously good enough to be a great Ryder Cup player. He’s having a great year statistically and should be in for a victory soon.

Kevin Na – Strange year from Na who is usually a weak ballstriker with a great short game. This year he’s a strong ballstriker with a weak short game. Could be in for a victory soon as you have to believe his putting will return to his normal form soon and that he just made enough swing changes that are finally clicking in his ballstriking. As far as captain’s picks go, he would be in my top-5.

Dustin Johnson – Obviously, he has a metric ass-load of talent. But, he’s a poor putter and where he typically excels in is windy conditions because he hits it so unearthly long without a high ball flight. With his injuries, he will probably not get a lot of playing time in and given his struggles on the putting green, I would not be too keen on the idea of selecting him and hoping that he stays healthy, that he isn’t rusty and that he can get the putter going.






3JACK

3Jack's Ideas For Helping Golf Courses

Often times I see a lot of things I don't like about how golf courses are run and I think they miss out on a lot of opportunities.

I think one of the main problems facing golf courses these days is that most golfers have less vacation time. I remember growing up my dad had 4 weeks paid vacation and it accrued if it was not spent. I think after 20 years of work, he wound up accumulating nearly 2 years of unpaid vacation. One summer he finally decided to use it a ton. It was also the worst summer of my teenage years

But, I think that was pretty much the norm for paid vacation for a lot of white collared and blue collared jobs (my dad worked for a power company which was sort of a hybrid of blue collar and white collar). Now the standard PTO is about 2-weeks.

I think what has happened is that because there’s less PTO for golfers in their jobs, they wind up valuing their weekends even more. Thus, 4-1/2 hour rounds are viewed negatively. In fact, I think that golf courses need to try and eliminate the 4-1/2 hour round all together because it just takes up too much of people’s time. Not only that, but just the idea in a golfer’s head that if they play a round of golf that it will take about 4-1/2 hour round needs to be eliminated altogether.

I believe that the first step a golf course should start to think about is not that they are competing against other golf courses, but that they are competing against other hobbies, interests, etc. for the weekend leisure time of golfers. They are not just competing against Golf Course X that is across town, but against college and professional sporting events, parks, concerts, festivals, etc.



PACE OF PLAY INITIATIVE

I think this is the biggie. Rounds of golf, particularly since we have so many golf carts, need to be faster. It’s SIMPLE supply and demand that 95% of the golf courses neglect. A golf course only has so many hours of sunlight in a day. In order to get more golfers playing your course, the rounds need to be quicker. If you hire 2 rangers, a starter and make it an objective for the course to get rounds of golf under 4 hours, this can happen easily.

On the forum members have talked about ‘educating’ golfers as to how to player quicker, which I agree with. But I still believe that when courses enforce faster pace of play, the golfers learn how to play faster.



6-HOLE ROUNDS OF GOLF

I think Jack Nicklaus brought up a good point with the 6-hole rounds of golf. However, there are some tricky parts to doing this. For one, the routing of the course may not be conducive to 6-hole rounds. I think one can get around this by placing an employee in a golf cart between the 6th green and 7th tee and check which players are playing 9-holes or 18-holes of golf versus which ones are playing 6-holes. The big dilemma is being able to properly route the 6-hole rounds to the clubhouse without golfers bothering the other golfers still playing.

The pricing would also be tricky because ideally you want the golfers to pay the most money (18-holes). Courses could take the step of charging something like $40 for 18-holes, $30 for 9-holes, and $20 for 6-holes. The key is to keep the pace of play moving so 4-hours for 18-holes doesn’t sound too bad of a bargain and one could get in 6-holes for $20 and less than 1-1/2 hours.



THE RANGE

I believe what we are seeing more and more of is the popularity of driving ranges. Back when I was growing up playing golf, driving ranges were not exactly all that prevalent or all that nice. Now, every course seems to have a pretty elaborate driving range. Driving ranges work because they are typically low cost to maintain and golfers are willing to go to the range because they can pretty much determine how much time they want to spend.

Courses could be more creative in using the popularity of the range to their advantage. Perhaps have a deal where for $25 they get all of the balls they want for the day and lunch. Perhaps a deal where for $30 they get all of the balls they can hit, a demo day and have a buffet where they can watch college or pro football later on. If a golf course is going to lose out to football games in the fall, they might as well get golfers to watch the game in their restaurant or grill.


DAY CARE

How many of us have gone to a gym where there is a day care while the parents, usually the mother, sends the kids inside the day care while they go work out? I know golf courses have a thing against noise, but once again this is a missed opportunity for golf courses.



1 MORE SET OF TEES

When I played Celebration Golf Club a few weeks ago, I noticed that they had a set of tees on each hole, roughly 80-120 yards from the green. These were met for beginners, children and lesser golfers in general. I do believe that golf courses have become much more friendly to junior golfers over time. I remember when that wasn’t exactly the case when I was a junior golfer. However, golf courses have to keep in mind that junior golfers have the greatest lifetime value as a customer than any other demographic of customers on courses. The key is to get them into the game very early. So, one more set of tees like Celebration Golf Club has could be instrumental in getting them to enjoy the game versus having them hit a drive and their parent pick up the ball and let them putt on the green.


BE CREATIVE

That’s the general theme here. Think ‘outside the box’ and go against the norms in the golf course industry. I was thinking of getting together with some operations specialists who deal with managing assembly lines and seeing if we could apply their principles to the golf course. I know that one of the principles is that you want the slowest person to be in the middle of the assembly line while the 2 fastest to be the first and the last in the assembly line. Perhaps there’s a way to use that principle to a golf course’s advantage.






3JACK

Collection of Putting Strokes

Here's a nice video showing a collection of putting strokes from the game's greats.








3JACK