3Jack Golf's 2014 PGA Tour Rundown - Week 10

Russell Henley wins the Honda Classic:



Here are how my Honda picks finished:

Adam Scott: 16/1 (t-12th)
Charl Schwartzel: 20/1 (MC)
Graeme McDowell: 22/1 (t-46th)
Justin Rose: 25/1 (DNP)
Keegan Bradley: 28/1 (t-12th)
Rickie Fowler: 28/1 (t-24th)
Ryan Palmer: 75/1 (p-2nd)
Robert Garrigus: 100/1 (MC)
Brendan Steele: 125/1 (t-33rd)

Value Pick: Ben Crane (150/1) 69th


Here are my picks for Doral:

Sergio Garcia: 18/1
Bubba Watson: 22/1
Jordan Spieth: 22/1
Keegan Bradley: 28/1
Zach Johnson: 33/1
Steve Stricker: 40/1
Jason Dufner: 50/1
Lee Westwood: 50/1
Jim Furyk: 50/1

Value Pick: Nick Watney (66/1)


DRIVING EFFECTIVENESS



1. Bubba Watson
2. Kevin Streelman
3. Hunter Mahan
4. Ryan Moore
5. Kevin Stadler
6. Justin Hicks
7. Hideki Matsuyama
8. Derek Ernst
9. John Merrick
10. Graham DeLaet


159. Chad Collins
160. Gonzalo Fdez-Castano
161. Retief Goosen
162. Aaron Baddeley
163. Jamie Lovemark
164. Seung-Yul Noh
165. Andres Romero
166. Tyrone Van Aswegen
167. Bud Cauley
168. Mike Weir



BIRDIE ZONE



1. Ryo Ishikawa
2. Alex Aragon
3. Chesson Hadley
4. Marc Leishman
5. Brian Stuard
6. Jason Bohn
7. Michael Putnam
8. Hideki Matsuyama
9. Tim Clark
10. K.J. Choi




159. Luke Guthrie
160. Chad Campbell
161. James Hahn
162. Sean O'Hair
163. Jhonattan Vegas
164. Brendon de Jonge
165. Tommy Gainey
166. Derek Ernst
167. Aaron Baddeley
168. Wes Roach





SAFE ZONE



1. Victor Dubuisson
2. Rickie Fowler
3. Ryan Moore
4. K.J. Choi
5. Dustin Johnson
6. Marc Leishman
7. Peter Malnati
8. Jordan Spieth
9. Hideki Matsuyama
10. Charley Hoffman


159. Sean O'Hair
160. Lee Westwood
161. Johnson Wagner
162. Jonathan Byrd
163. Kevin Tway
164. D.A. Points
165. Troy Matteson
166. Ben Curtis
167. Jhonattan Vegas
168. Gary Woodland



DANGER ZONE





1. Bubba Watson
2. Chad Campbell
3. Jordan Spieth
4. Matt Every
5. Robert Streb
6. Kyle Stanley
7. Kevin Streelman
8. Heath Slocum
9. Brendan Steele
10. Jason Dufner


159. J.B. Holmes
160. Greg Chalmers
161. John Huh
162. Tim Wilkinson
163. Woody Austin
164. Ben Curtis
165. Peter Malnati
166. Richard Lee
167. Bud Cauley
168. Kiradech Aphibarnrat




SHORT GAME PLAY

1. Tim Clark
2. Lee Westwood
3. Bud Cauley
4. Zach Johnson
5. Jason Dufner
6. Robert Streb
7. George McNeill
8. Jonathan Byrd
9. Brian Stuard
10. Roberto Castro


159. Danny Lee
160. Alex Aragon
161. Ben Martin
162. Ted Potter, Jr.
163. Robert Allenby
164. Tommy Gainey
165. Hudson Swafford
166. Greg Chalmers
167. Andrew Svoboda
168. J.J. Henry







3JACK

Ground Reaction Forces with Chris Welch

Here's a video from Chris Welch of Zenolink on Ground Reaction Forces in the golf swing:









3JACK

Bunker Lesson with James Sieckmann

Here's a video with James Sieckmann's thoughts on bunker play:









3JACK

3Jack Golf's PGA Tour Rundown - Week 9

Jason Day just won the Accenture Match Play in an epic match against Victor Dubuisson.




Anyway, here’s how my picks at Riviera finished up:

Dustin Johnson: 14/1 (2nd)
Webb Simpson: 18/1 (t-70th)
Graham DeLaet: 22/1 (t-70th)
Hideki Matsuyama: 28/1 (t-23rd)
Keegan Bradley: 28/1 (t-20th)
Harris English: 33/1 (t-10th)
Ryan Moore: 33/1 (MC)
Kevin Stadler: 75/1 (t-23rd)
Cameron Tringale: 100/1 (t-12th)

Value Pick: Luke Guthrie (125/1) (t-40th)

Here are my picks for the Honda.

Adam Scott: 16/1
Charl Schwartzel: 20/1
Graeme McDowell: 22/1
Justin Rose: 25/1
Keegan Bradley: 28/1
Rickie Fowler: 28/1
Ryan Palmer: 75/1
Robert Garrigus: 100/1
Brendan Steele: 125/1

Value Pick: Ben Crane (150/1)


Here are the current rankings:

DRIVING EFFECTIVENESS



1. Bubba Watson
2. Kevin Streelman
3. Hunter Mahan
4. Ryan Moore
5. Lee Westwood
6. Kevin Stadler
7. Justin Hicks
8. Derek Ernst
9. John Merrick
10. Hideki Matsuyama


166. Retief Goosen
167. Andrew Loupe
168. Aaron Baddeley
169. Seung-Yul Noh
170. Troy Merritt
171. Tyrone Van Aswegen
172. Jamie Lovemark
173. Bud Cauley
174. Mike Weir
175. Bobby Gates


BIRDIE ZONE PLAY (75-125 YARDS)



1. Ryo Ishikawa
2. Alex Aragon
3. Chesson Hadley
4. Marc Leishman
5. Brian Stuard
6. Michael Putnam
7. Hideki Matsuyama
8. Harrison Frazar
9. Tim Clark
10. Jason Bohn


166. Brendon de Jonge
167. James Hahn
168. Scott Verplank
169. Luke Guthrie
170. Jhonattan Vegas
171. Sean O'Hair
172. Tommy Gainey
173. Derek Ernst
174. Aaron Baddeley
175. Wes Roach


SAFE ZONE PLAY (125-175 YARDS)



1. Rickie Fowler
2. Ryan Moore
3. K.J. Choi
4. Dustin Johnson
5. Marc Leishman
6. Peter Malnati
7. Jordan Spieth
8. Spencer Levin
9. Hideki Matsuyama
10. Charley Hoffman


166. Andres Romero
167. Andrew Loupe
168. Jonathan Byrd
169. Troy Matteson
170. Bobby Gates
171. Kevin Tway
172. Justin Thomas
173. Ben Curtis
174. Jhonattan Vegas
175. Gary Woodland


DANGER ZONE (175-225 YARDS)



1. Bubba Watson
2. Chad Campbell
3. Jordan Spieth
4. Matt Every
5. Ian Poulter
6. Stewart Cink
7. Kyle Stanley
8. Heath Slocum
9. Robert Streb
10. Kevin Streelman


166. Martin Flores
167. John Huh
168. Ben Curtis
169. James Driscoll
170. Woody Austin
171. Peter Malnati
172. Richard Lee
173. Bud Cauley
174. Kiradech Aphibarnrat
175. Scott Verplank


SHORT GAME PLAY

1. Bud Cauley
2. Lee Westwood
3. Andrew Loupe
4. Tim Clark
5. Jeff Overton
6. Brian Stuard
7. Jason Dufner
8. Jerry Kelly
9. Zach Johnson
10. Roberto Castro


166. Alex Aragon
167. Ben Martin
168. Tommy Gainey
169. Bronson La'Cassie
170. Greg Chalmers
171. Robert Allenby
172. Ted Potter, Jr.
173. Andrew Svoboda
174. Hudson Swafford
175. J.J. Henry





3JACK

RIP Harold Ramis

3JACK

Are You Turning Like a Tour Player?

Here's the 5 Simple Keys guys with a video on the body rotation on the downswing:










3JACK

Some Ramblings on Equipment

One of the things I have been contemplating lately is how so much equipment is often designed for the higher handicapper golfers. Even the equipment that is supposed to be designed for the lower handicappers tends to have design features that play more towards helping the high handicapper.

I started to think about this more after the PGA Merchandise Show.

One of the things Dr. Rob Neal (www.biodynamics.com) discussed in his presentation at the Open Forum 2 was that the average shaft lean at impact for a Tour player for shots from 30-80 yards using a Sand Wedge was 16-degrees. The range was practically anywhere from 13-degrees to 17-degrees according to Dr. Neal. Golf Instructor and Edel Golf wedge designer has discussed this quite a bit as to why he designed the Edel wedges with more bounce and created a fitting system for that bounce:



One of the things Adams discussed at the Open Forum was how when they measured the forward shaft lean of players with wedge shots around the green years ago it was right in line with Dr. Neal's findings of roughly 16-degrees of forward shaft lean. That's why the Edel wedges feature higher bounce angles. If a golfer is getting 16* of forward shaft lean at impact but is playing with 6* of bounce angle in their wedge, the golfer is likely to stick the wedge into the ground with the leading edge. That is unless they make a large compensation in order to get rid of that forward shaft lean as Adams mentions with golfers 'backing up' out of the shot. And what we know about higher handicap golfers is that they usually have much less forward shaft lean than the better players. So that's why those OEM wedges have much less bounce. It works well for a 20 handicapper, but the better golfer with more forward shaft lean now has to work around them.

And this also makes me feel the same way with the irons.



We see that the Callaway X-Forged has more bounce, but the Mizuno and the Titleist clubs still seem to be much more oriented towards the golfer with less forward shaft lean at impact. So for better players out there, they should really check into the bounce angles of their irons and wedges.

The other part of the club I looked at and asked questions about at the PGA Show was shaft design.

What I have noticed with most shafts that I have tinkered with is that they are usually designed with more weight up towards the butt end of the shaft than the tip end.

So, what happens is that when the shaft is trimmed, the shaft becomes much lighter than it was when it was not trimmed.

For instance, I played around with a 130 gram KBS Shaft and trimmed it to a Sand Wedge length.  After I trimmed it to SW length and re-measured its weight it came out to 107 grams. 

Part of what I think this does is that it increases the concentration of the club's total mass towards the head.

Here is an example of what I mean.

Let's use the example of the SW with the 130 gram raw shaft that gets trimmed and weighs 107 grams after trimming.  Also, we will say that the head weighs 300 grams and the grip weighs 50 grams:

(107 gram shaft + 50 gram grip) / 300 gram head = 52.3% of mass concentration in shaft+grip

Let's say we get a shaft that weights 120 grams after being trimmed:

(120 gram shaft + 50 gram grip) / 300 gram head = 56.8% of mass concentration in shaft+grip

So as the % gets higher towards the *shaft+grip*, the ball will launch higher and spin more.  That's great if you're a 10 handicap that needs all of the help launching the ball that one can get.  But, if you're a 2-handicap looking for a penetrating ball flight with the shorter irons, this could be a problem.

The other conflict is that they generally make shafts for 6-irons.  And when the shaft gets longer there tends to be a very high concentration of the mass towards the shaft+grip.  This means the ball launches lower and spins less.  But we don't need lower launch and spin help with the long irons since they are already designed with a lower loft. 

This leads golfers into purchasing hybrids because they cannot hit their long irons well even when they make a good pass at it.

It's one of the interesting things I found with the Nippon Modus 130 shaft.



The 'high end' (towards the butt) of the tip section of the Modus 130 is very soft.  Then the 'low end' of the tip section gets very stiff.  The shaft is also designed with a lot of steps towards the tip and when I trimmed it, it was still rather heavy after trimming, meaning that more weight was towards the tip instead of towards the butt section like most shafts.

The step pattern towards the tip would usually indicate a very stiff shaft.  But, Nippon has figured out a way to create a shaft geared more towards the better player by being able to keep it heavy after trimming which keeps the concentration of mass higher towards the shaft.  All the while creating a tip profile that creates a ball flight that will not be too soft which would result in flying too high and spinning too much.

I just think that better golfers may want to look out for this when it comes to the performance of equipment for their golf swing.









3JACK