2011 PGA Tour Danger Zone Rankings 3.29.11

Here's the update (keep in mind that since it's early in the season, the rankings can change dramatically)

1……Scott Stallings
2……Jim Renner
3……Paul Stankowski
4……Nick Watney
5……Padraig Harrington
6……Ryuji Imada
7……David Toms
8……Billy Horschel
9……Jason Gore
10……Kevin Chappell
11……Phil Mickelson
12……Harrison Frazar
13……Peter Tomasulo
14……Y.E. Yang
15……Robert Garrigus
16……Graeme McDowell
17……Charley Hoffman
18……Alexandre Rocha
19……Rickie Fowler
20……Kyle Stanley
21……Jim Furyk
22……Brendan Steele
23……Davis Love III
24……Robert Allenby
25……John Rollins
26……Brandt Snedeker
27……Vijay Singh
28……Dustin Johnson
29……Chris Couch
30……Derek Lamely
31……Chez Reavie
32……Jonathan Byrd
33……Geoff Ogilvy
34……Marc Leishman
35……Jim Herman
36……Jason Day
37……Chris Kirk
38……Martin Laird
39……Stewart Cink
40……Ben Crane
41……Joe Durant
42……Andres Romero
43……Mark Wilson
44……Ernie Els
45……Ryan Moore
46……Heath Slocum
47……Matt Kuchar
48……Steven Bowditch
49……Brian Gay
50……Ian Poulter
51……Boo Weekley
52……David Mathis
53……Spencer Levin
54……Pat Perez
55……Tag Ridings
56……Paul Goydos
57……Alex Cejka
58……John Senden
59……Chad Campbell
60……Jason Dufner
61……George McNeill
62……Justin Rose
63……Richard S. Johnson
64……J.J. Henry
65……Bubba Watson
66……Joe Ogilvie
67……Sean O'Hair
68……Kevin Stadler
69……J.P. Hayes
70……Garrett Willis
71……Paul Casey
72……Ben Martin
73……Aaron Baddeley
74……Kenny Perry
75……Justin Hicks
76……Roland Thatcher
77……Sunghoon Kang
78……Brendon de Jonge
79……Vaughn Taylor
80……Alex Prugh
81……Gary Woodland
82……Jeff Overton
83……Cameron Tringale
84……Bill Lunde
85……Duffy Waldorf
86……Troy Matteson
87……Daniel Summerhays
88……Martin Kaymer
89……Marc Turnesa
90……Kris Blanks
91……Chris DiMarco
92……Scott McCarron
93……Shane Bertsch
94……Charles Howell III
95……Steve Marino
96……Ryan Palmer
97……Rory Sabbatini
98……Bobby Gates
99……Chris Baryla
100……Stuart Appleby
101……Ricky Barnes
102……Tom Gillis
103……Arjun Atwal
104……Jeff Maggert
105……D.A. Points
106……John Daly
107……Luke Donald
108……Troy Merritt
109……Steve Stricker
110……Stephen Ames
111……Scott Gutschewski
112……D.J. Brigman
113……Webb Simpson
114……Kevin Sutherland
115……Brandt Jobe
116……Ben Curtis
117……Edoardo Molinari
118……Zach Johnson
119……Jamie Lovemark
120……Nathan Green
121……Tommy Gainey
122……Rocco Mediate
123……Jason Bohn
124……Fredrik Jacobson
125……Trevor Immelman
126……Hunter Mahan
127……Brian Davis
128……Kevin Na
129……Bo Van Pelt
130……D.J. Trahan
131……Matt Jones
132……Mike Weir
133……David Hearn
134……Chris Stroud
135……Jerry Kelly
136……Billy Mayfair
137……Zack Miller
138……Shaun Micheel
139……Matt McQuillan
140……Tim Herron
141……Chris Riley
142……David Duval
143……Nate Smith
144……Dean Wilson
145……Michael Connell
146……Anthony Kim
147……Jarrod Lyle
148……Kent Jones
149……James Driscoll
150……Colt Knost
151……Jimmy Walker
152……Tim Petrovic
153……Keegan Bradley
154……Kevin Streelman
155……Michael Thompson
156……Bill Haas
157……Justin Leonard
158……J.B. Holmes
159……Chad Collins
160……Cameron Beckman
161……Michael Bradley
162……Jesper Parnevik
163……Michael Putnam
164……Jhonattan Vegas
165……Carl Pettersson
166……Blake Adams
167……Bryce Molder
168……Josh Teater
169……K.J. Choi
170……Fabian Gomez
171……Lucas Glover
172……Nick O'Hern
173……Matt Bettencourt
174……Martin Piller
175……Charl Schwartzel
176……Johnson Wagner
177……William McGirt
178……Angel Cabrera
179……Bio Kim
180……Joseph Bramlett
181……Hunter Haas
182……Steve Flesch
183……Greg Chalmers
184……Lee Janzen
185……Charlie Wi
186……Camilo Villegas
187……Kevin Kisner
188……Rod Pampling
189……Michael Sim
190……John Merrick
191……Brad Faxon






3JACK

3.27.11 AimPoint Clinic Review

Sunday I attended an AimPoint Golf clinic that was being instructed by John Graham (www.johngrahamgolf.com) at DeBary Golf & Country Club.

We have discussed AimPoint's teaching quite a bit on the blog and forum and I even purchased a David Orr video (www.orrgolf.com) with Mark Sweeney discussing AimPoint's teachings.

AimPoint breaks its classes into three:

1. Introduction to AimPoint Golf

2. AimPoint Fundamentals

3. Advanced AimPoint

From what I can tell, the introduction and fundamentals class are two different classes with the Introduction being a lower cost and bringing in more golfers who are skeptics of what AimPoint offers. The fundamentals class is for the golfers who are AimPoint 'believers', but don't know how to execute AimPoint. We were in the fundamentals class on Sunday.

There was a lot of questions I had after the Orr video because often times I find videos can be extremely helpful, but being there live tends to make things easier to understand.

A couple of the first things we went over was the 'Geometry of a Putt' and then how to determine the stimpmeter.



Determining the stimp is vital to understanding AimPoint because if you're off, then the AimCharts and other measurements will be inaccurate. I remember when I posted the video above I had people reply 'no thanks, I'll just ask the course.'

The problem with asking the course is that you need to have faith that they actually give a damn and there are greenkeepers who will 'lie' about the stimp to keep the membership happy. I think the former is more prevalent with public courses and the latter is more prevalent with private clubs.

The latter is something I'm finding as with my research on 'legal pin positions' (No more than 3% slope on greens with a stimp of 9.5 or more, no more than 4% on any green slower than 9.5), is that many courses have greens that cannot help but have illegal pin positions. But that's because they were designed to not go higher than 8 on the stimpmeter. The golfing public falls in love with the stimp numbers and wants 'the fastest greens in town' and that can force the greenkeeper to juke the numbers.

In other words, I wouldn't take something that could really help my score at face value.

We then moved onto things like finding the fall line and what planar, crown and saddle slopes looked like. We also talked about how uphill putts and downhill putts effect the break. John also mentioned that the grain doesn't really effect the break...it effects the speed which thus effects the break.

Some of the problems I had with AimPoint going into the clinic were properly feeling my way around on the green in order to determine the type of slope and then where the fall line would be. I also found it hard to determine what something like 5 inches from 15 feet would look like versus 5 inches from 6 feet away. John did a great job with explaining how to better do those things.

I also didn't understand the anchor points and how to determine the break when you're just away from the anchor point. John explained that very well, too.

Lastly, we went into discussing 'crown' slope putts. One thing I believe from reading greens later this afternoon is that crown slopes are the hardest to read because they are so subtle. The saddle and planar putts are easier to see, but the crown putts can really fool a golfer. The Advanced class goes more into things like figuring out crowns and saddles and triple breaks.

The clinic was excellent and I highly recommend it to anybody who wants to really learn how to putt better. Not a single student at the clinic was anything less than bewildered and amazed by the accuracy of the reads and as far as what we covered, everybody came away with a super understanding. What else can one ask for?

Later in the day I played a round and tried it for myself. I feel the key is to log in some serious practice time on the practice green. It's not so much about understanding what 6 inches looks like from 18 feet away, but in the short term, get the routine down. It takes some time to get it down where you can figure out the green read, determine where to aim and then go into your practice stroke routine, remember where you aim and hit the putt.

Once you get the routine down, then I think you practice to get better and better at reading the green and so you can start to know what 3 inches from 21 feet looks like.

(OLD VERSION OF AIMPOINT AIMCHART)

One thing that surprised me was that the AimCharts can be used to help figure out the read from more than 20 feet away. In fact, the new AimCharts are much better and also can be used to measure the inches away from the cup.

Also, if you can read the greens really well, I think it will naturally help the golfer's putting mechanics. As I've discussed with the golf swing, you really want to limit your compensatory moves in the golf swing if you can. With putting, if you're green read is poor, then I believe you will make compensations for that.

For instance, one of the golfers would aim left and then push the ball to the target. But, if you have the correct read and understand why it is the correct read, then if you miss your mark you start to better understand that your aim was off.

But you'll have to go to a clinic to understand that.

I'd like to thank John Graham, AimPoint Golf, DeBary Golf & Country Club and Director of Instruction Jeff Peterson for holding the clinic and allowing non-members like myself to attend.






3JACK

Sean Foley At Toronto Golf Show

Here's some interesting stuff from 3Jack Top 50 Instructor, Sean Foley, on Tiger, Trackman and other things about the golf swing






3JACK

Over The Plane to On Plane

3Jack Top 50 Instructor, Ted Fort, with a video showing the progress of a student who was extremely over the top to more on plane.








3JACK

2011 PGA Tour Danger Zone Rankings 3.23.11

1……..Scott Stallings
2……..Jim Renner
3……..David Toms
4……..Roland Thatcher
5……..Nick Watney
6……..Paul Stankowski
7……..Chad Campbell
8……..Kevin Chappell
9……..Graeme McDowell
10……..Ryuji Imada
11……..Jim Herman
12……..Phil Mickelson
13……..Davis Love III
14……..Padraig Harrington
15……..Chris DiMarco
16……..Peter Tomasulo
17……..John Senden
18……..Alex Cejka
19……..Joe Affrunti
20……..Brandt Snedeker
21……..Alexandre Rocha
22……..Daniel Summerhays
23……..Martin Laird
24……..Kyle M. Stanley
25……..Jim Furyk
26……..Robert Garrigus
27……..Y.E. Yang
28……..Ben Martin
29……..Billy Horschel
30……..Brendan Steele
31……..Shane Bertsch
32……..Spencer Levin
33……..Brian Gay
34……..Kenny Perry
35……..Marc Leishman
36……..Harrison Frazar
37……..Tag Ridings
38……..Matt Kuchar
39……..Boo Weekley
40……..Heath Slocum
41……..Charley Hoffman
42……..Jason Gore
43……..Geoff Ogilvy
44……..Paul Goydos
45……..Justin Rose
46……..Bubba Watson
47……..Chris Couch
48……..Robert Allenby
49……..Chez Reavie
50……..Chris Kirk
51……..John Rollins
52……..Adam Scott
53……..Aaron Baddeley
54……..Richard S. Johnson
55……..Duffy Waldorf
56……..Stewart Cink
57……..Vijay Singh
58……..Derek Lamely
59……..Retief Goosen
60……..Garrett Willis
61……..Rickie Fowler
62……..Jonathan Byrd
63……..Justin Hicks
64……..Webb Simpson
65……..Ernie Els
66……..Alex Prugh
67……..Joe Durant
68……..Ricky Barnes
69……..David Mathis
70……..J.J. Henry
71……..J.P. Hayes
72……..Kevin Stadler
73……..Ryan Moore
74……..Mark Wilson
75……..Jeff Maggert
76……..Brendon de Jonge
77……..Jason Day
78……..Steven Bowditch
79……..Jason Dufner
80……..Sean O'Hair
81……..Woody Austin
82……..Ian Poulter
83……..Jeff Overton
84……..Vaughn Taylor
85……..David Hearn
86……..Charles Howell III
87……..Steve Marino
88……..Dustin Johnson
89……..Gary Woodland
90……..George McNeill
91……..Michael Connell
92……..Paul Casey
93……..Fredrik Jacobson
94……..Jarrod Lyle
95……..Andres Romero
96……..Sunghoon Kang
97……..Scott McCarron
98……..Ben Crane
99……..Brandt Jobe
100……..Stuart Appleby
101……..David Duval
102……..Troy Matteson
103……..Tom Gillis
104……..Nate Smith
105……..D.A. Points
106……..Troy Merritt
107……..Kris Blanks
108……..Colt Knost
109……..Ben Curtis
110……..Kevin Na
111……..Chris Stroud
112……..Billy Mayfair
113……..Jhonattan Vegas
114……..Arjun Atwal
115……..Stephen Ames
116……..Marc Turnesa
117……..Rory Sabbatini
118……..Tommy Gainey
119……..Pat Perez
120……..Joe Ogilvie
121……..Bill Lunde
122……..Bobby Gates
123……..Cameron Tringale
124……..Scott Gutschewski
125……..Jason Bohn
126……..Jimmy Walker
127……..Matt Jones
128……..Bo Van Pelt
129……..Matt McQuillan
130……..D.J. Brigman
131……..Justin Leonard
132……..Ryan Palmer
133……..Jerry Kelly
134……..Nathan Green
135……..Chris Baryla
136……..Michael Thompson
137……..Hunter Mahan
138……..Steve Stricker
139……..Mike Weir
140……..Zack Miller
141……..Shaun Micheel
142……..Martin Kaymer
143……..Jamie Lovemark
144……..Kent Jones
145……..Luke Donald
146……..Fabian Gomez
147……..Trevor Immelman
148……..Dean Wilson
149……..John Daly
150……..Kevin Sutherland
151……..Zach Johnson
152……..Brian Davis
153……..Chris Riley
154……..Camilo Villegas
155……..Bryce Molder
156……..Kevin Streelman
157……..D.J. Trahan
158……..Carl Pettersson
159……..Jesper Parnevik
160……..John Merrick
161……..Tim Herron
162……..Nick O'Hern
163……..Tim Petrovic
164……..Josh Teater
165……..Keegan Bradley
166……..William McGirt
167……..Chad Collins
168……..Anthony Kim
169……..Blake Adams
170……..Cameron Beckman
171……..Michael Putnam
172……..Bill Haas
173……..Matt Bettencourt
174……..J.B. Holmes
175……..Johnson Wagner
176……..Angel Cabrera
177……..Lucas Glover
178……..Rocco Mediate
179……..Michael Bradley
180……..K.J. Choi
181……..James Driscoll
182……..Martin Piller
183……..Charlie Wi
184……..Bio Kim
185……..Hunter Haas
186……..Steve Flesch
187……..Joseph Bramlett
188……..Greg Chalmers
189……..Michael Sim
190……..Kevin Kisner
191……..Brad Faxon

New Yardage Gapping Thoughts...

With all of the work I did on the statistical analysis of golf, I have been thinking a lot of proper yardage gapping of equipment. One of the main premises I hit on with my statistical research findings is that when you’re playing top flight golf, your proficiency from the Danger Zone (175-225 yard approach shots) will have the biggest influence on score. And one of the things I noticed, particularly with top tier Danger Zone players on the PGA Tour, is that they do not carry gap wedges and instead carry a hybrid or a 5-wood.

The key isn’t really whether or not you actually use a 2-hybrid (17* or 18* loft) or a 5-wood (18* loft), it’s about consistently getting the yardage gaps correct and getting the yardage gaps correct for shots in your ‘Danger Zone.’ Again, here’s the table I came up with to determine the yardages for the Danger Zone, depending upon the length of the course and how far you hit it.

Yards….Long……Mid1…Mid2…Short1….Short2…DZ1……DZ2

7600……315……314……298……297………..277……...185……235

7500……310……309……294……293……..…273…...…175……225

7400……306……305……290……289………..269…...…175……225

7300……302……301……286……285……..…265...……175……225

7200……298……297……281……280……..…260…...…175….…225

7100……294……293……278……277……..…257…...…175….…225

7000……290……289……275……275….....…255...……175….…225

6900……286……285……270……269………..249…….…175……225

6800……281……280……265……264………..244……….175……225

6700……277……276……260……259………..239…….…165……215

6600……273……272……257……256………..236…….…165……215

6500……269……268……253……252………..232…….…165……215

6400……265……264……250……249………..229…….…165……215

6300……261……260……245……244………..224….……150……200

6200……257……256……240……239……..…219…….…150……200

6100……252……251……235……234………..214…….…150……200

6000……248……247……232……231……….211…..……150……200

5900……244……243……228……227……….207……..…150……200

5800……240……239……225……224……….204……….140….…190

5700……236……235……220……219…….…199…….…140…….190

5600……232……231……215……214…….…194…….…140….…190

5500……228……227……212……211……..…191……….140……190


So, let’s say you are playing a 6,000 yard course and your average, pretty decent driver goes about 235 yards…you should look to keep the yardage gaps ‘tight’ on your Danger Zone shots. In this case will be approach shots from 150-200 yards.

(click to enlarge pic)

Last year, Trackman provided a mathematical way to calculate yardage gapping between clubs. It took the carry of the PGA Tour average driver (269 yards) and the carry of PGA Tour’s average Lob Wedge (77 yards). Their mathematical logic went like this:

269 yards – 77 yards = 192 yards

192 yards / 12 clubs = 16 yard gap between clubs

While I like their thinking, I do find this a bit flawed. For instance, here’s what they are saying your yardage gaps should be then (all in carry):

Driver: 269 yards
3-wood: 243 yards
Hybrid/5-wood: 227 yards
3-iron: 211 yards
4-iron: 205 yards
5-iron: 189 yards
6-iron: 173 yards
7-iron: 157 yards
8-iron: 141 yards
9-iron: 125 yards
PW: 109 yards
SW: 93 yards
LW: 77 yards

I *carry* my driver about 260 yards and my 3-wood about 238 yards. But, I carry my 5 thru sand wedge much, much further than the yardage gaps prescribed. I carry my 9-iron about 143 yards instead of 125 yards (18 yards of difference) and my 7-iron about 168 yards instead of 157 yards (11 yards difference).


Here’s a few things I find flawed in Trackman’s calculation.

1. Take the driver out of the equation. With the driver, I’m not worried about distance control. I’m really not too worried about it with the 3-wood, but there is more importance with distance control on a 3-wood than a driver. And I’ll need to understand my 3-wood distance to figure out what type of hybrid or 5-wood I should use to ‘tighten up the gaps.’

2. Take the Lob Wedge out of the equation. I may use a full swing lob wedge once out of every 3 rounds. My lob wedge is there for bunker shots, chips, pitches and flops. That’s why you will see some PGA Tour pros carry something like a 66* lob wedge and a 54* sand wedge. They just will not have any use for a full swing Lob Wedge. And as I mentioned in the statistical research posts, the difference in proximity to the cup by using a Sand Wedge over a Lob Wedge is minimal compared to having the wrong club in the Danger Zone.

3. 16 yards of difference between clubs will likely lead to a lot of ‘in-between clubs’ shots and force the golfer into making half swings and choking up on irons which makes trajectory control more difficult.

4. This forgets that typically, clubs are separated by approximately 4* of loft per club. So a set may have a 4-iron with 24* of loft, followed by a 5-iron with 28* of loft, then a 6-iron with 32* of loft. And so on and so forth.

#4 is very key as to why Trackman’s calculations are flawed.

What I would suggest is probably figuring out your 3-wood’s average amount of carry (again, the driver really doesn’t matter). And we also want to figure out the Sand Wedge’s average amount of carry (again, the Lob Wedge carry isn’t important).

I would also recommend that you figure out your lofts for each of the *irons*. Why? Because we need to get them into 4* increments so we can figure out the Sand Wedge you would hit.

Let me explain.

If you have an iron set that looks like this for lofts:

3-iron: 21*
4-iron: 24*
5-iron: 28*
6-iron: 32*
7-iron: 36*
8-iron: 40*
9-iron: 44*
PW: 48*

If you have a Sand Wedge with 54* loft, that may not be the sand wedge loft you need. We need to continue to split it off into 4* increments.

So we would need to figure out how far you would hit a 56* sand wedge, not a 54* sand wedge (because it would go PW 48*, Gap Wedge 52*, Sand Wedge 56*).

Now, let’s say my average carry with a 3-wood is 243 yards. And my average carry with a 56* sand wedge is 108 yards.

243 yards – 108 yards = 135 yards

135 yards / 11 clubs = 12.27 yards per gap

You may have noticed that I ‘took out’ 2 clubs..the 3-wood and the Lob Wedge.

In Trackman’s calculation, they went from Diver to Lob Wedge, and divided it by 12 clubs. Again, that formula looked like this:

269 yards driver carry – 77 yards lob wedge carry = 192 yards

192 yards / 12 clubs = 16 yards per club

As you can see with my formula, I took out 2 clubs (driver and lob wedge), but instead of dividing that number by 10 clubs, I divided it by 11 clubs.

Why?

Because I added the gap wedge (due to the 4* increment rule).

Now, my yardage gaps would look like this:

Driver: ?
3-wood: 243 yards
Hybrid/5-wood: 231 yards
3-iron/hybrid: 218 yards
4-iron: 206 yards
5-iron: 194 yards
6-iron: 182 yards
7-iron: 169 yards
8-iron: 157 yards
9-iron: 145 yards
PW: 133 yards
GW: 120 yards
SW: 108 yards
LW: 96 yards (theoretically)

These yardages are much more reasonable. They would still be a little long with the longer clubs for me, but from 6-iron thru Sand Wedge, they are pretty much spot on.


Since we can only carry 14 clubs in the bag, we would need to get rid of 1 of the clubs listed above. Again, I believe that statistically you want to keep the yardage gaps ‘tight’ on the longer clubs and there’s no real need to keep a Gap Wedge around.

In order to find the sand wedge that I wanted, I would try to use the example I listed and find something that is between the distance I hit the PW (133 yards) and the Lob wedge theoretical distance (96 yards). That would come out to a SW going 115 yards of carry. (133 + 96 / 2 = 114.5 yards)

Now, I would recommend going with a sand wedge loft you feel most comfortable with, but if you want to split the difference between yardage gapping and having enough loft to hit shots around the green, that’s how I would do it.

Thus, the new bag with the yardage gaps would look like this:

Driver: ?
3-wood: 243 yards
Hybrid/5-wood: 231 yards
3-iron/hybrid: 218 yards
4-iron: 206 yards
5-iron: 194 yards
6-iron: 182 yards
7-iron: 169 yards
8-iron: 157 yards
9-iron: 145 yards
PW: 133 yards
SW: 115 yards
LW: ?







3JACK

Keeping Your Head Down Myth

Kip Puterbaugh on the myth of 'keeping your head down.'









3JACK