I came across this little anecdote while listening to the podcast I can’t stop repeating on this site, the On The Mark Podcast (with Mark Immelman) in the episode I listened to he had a guest that has spent a lot of time with some of the greatest people this game has ever had, notably, Lee Trevino and Harvey Pennick.

About 1/4 through the episode, the guest revealed an interesting anecdote that has dramatically changed the way I see the game.

He shared the story of a pro that went to Harvey Pennick who was hooking the ball terribly, the pro had tried a lot of different fixes and he couldn’t figure it out. Most of the teachers he had went to had told him that the cause of the hook was a a strong grip, so most fixes were aimed at weakening the strong grip to eliminate the hook.

So when the pro went to Pennick, he was unsure what to expect but his suspicions were confirmed when Pennick told him that he needed to change his grip. Of course this disappointed the pro, then Harvey said the following;

“I want you to make it even stronger.”

Woah…

The young pro was taken aback, everyone has been trying to make my grip more conventional and you’re making me make it stronger?

Pennick reassured him and told the pro that, yes he wanted to make it stronger and then he had the pro weaken his trailing hand in the process and hit a ball.

The result?

A beautiful little cut.

Now there’s one more anecdote that I want to share before we go into why I found this so groundbreaking.

Later in the podcast, the man was telling about his time with Lee Trevino. Lee mentioned how his method for hitting fairways was to aim at trouble and work the ball away from it. He said, it’s easier to hit a fairway when you’re curving the ball to it instead of trying to hit the ball relatively straight and hit it.

Both little anecdotes made a light-bulb go off in my head.

Why?

They’re so different from conventional thinking, yet they are so right and make a ton of sense (especially for the way I want to play the game).

Which made me realize that this game is so based in orthodox techniques, that we start to paint ourselves into a box of convention.

Lee’s idea of hitting fairways is something you wouldn’t see many other teachers emulating but why not? People have this concept that to hit the fairway, you have to hit it straight (or relatively), nobody thinks twice about this convention. Yet do we have to? Why don’t we hit big power fades towards trouble that then turn back to the fairway?

That’s not wrong.

As golfers we’re frequently afraid to think outside the box and learn for ourselves what works and the techniques that we use. Even when we think outside the box, we’re still confined to the orthodox techniques.

Convention tells you that if you have a strong grip and are hooking it, that you then need to weaken your grip. But clearly, that’s not quite true and shouldn’t be held as a standard.

Convention tells us that we shouldn’t keep the head still and we should let it move. So then we must ask ourselves, what happens if I keep it still? Try it for yourself…

Convention tells us that we must go for the green on a par 3. But do we have to? Of course not, Billy Casper did such a thing by laying up on the tough par 3 at Winged Foot (and he won the 1959 US Open by laying up on this hole during all 4 rounds).

Challenge convention, challenge the orthodox, don’t be afraid to approach the game, the swing and the various shots that game requires differently.

This is definitely something that I want to do a lot more of, a lot more thinking outside the box and figuring out my way own ways to solve problems. I think if I want to beat everyone else, then I can’t practice or approach the game like everyone either. I need to start developing my own strategies and my own methods.

This is one of those boogeyman that used to get under my skin (not so much anymore), I’d wonder if I had enough talent in the game to get to where I wanted to be. I remember the junior golfers I used to play with and I’d hear how so and so is so talented at the game and can do anything with the ball.

In fact, I remember talking to an instructor back at home in Niagara who was telling me about this kid he’s teaching that is unreal. Telling me how much skill the kid has and then I decided to look him up, just for fun one day. Kid hasn’t broke 80 in a tournament. Talented? Maybe. But the numbers don’t show anything note-worthy.

The word talent gets tossed around a lot, I don’t really know how much value it has. There’s plenty of players who have all of the talent in the world but can’t put up good scores. They might crack under pressure, they might have terrible putting, they might have awful touch or some “Achilles” heel, that ruins their scoring.

As humans, there’s just too many variables in life. Talent doesn’t guarantee success and lack of it, doesn’t guarantee no success.

And there’s one more thing that people always forget, talent only gets you so far. You’re going to reach a point where talent is not going to carry you to where you want to be and you have to put in the work. At that point, you’re the same as everyone else.

I sort of feel I’m going in circles here but the bottom line is we don’t know what we are capable of until we put a very honest effort and truthfully, I think we need to follow our hearts. Follow your heart. Let the chips fall where they may. Our hearts are telling us to do something for a reason. Intuition is a powerful thing, we need to listen to it.

Which is what I am doing. I cannot ignore golf, I’ve tried and I can’t do it. That’s good enough reason to play the game and continue what I am doing.

I don’t care how talented someone is. Talent is no guarantee of success. Talented or not, you need to figure out how to shoot the lowest score.

This is really simple and won’t be a long post. I need to birdie par 5’s, that’s what’s going to take me to the next level. Par 5 performance is so critical.

Par the par 3’s.

Par the par 4’s

Birdie the par 5’s.

If I can get really good at scoring on par 5’s, I should begin to win a lot of the small amateur events I play in.

I was thinking about this the other night, I was thinking about why golf is so hard to improve at. I see so many guys at the range, practice greens and putting facilities “working” on their game but I don’t think they are getting any better.

Take my brother for example, a good player in his own right but he hasn’t really improved in the last 2 years.

He’ll call me up and say “I’ve figured out my putting, I know why I was missing 3 footers, or why I had poor speed.” But do you really know why? Furthermore, why can’t you carry your findings to the course. Why is it always something different everytime?

Yesterday I spent about an hour practicing bunker play and 2 hours putting, sometimes I had to wait for people that were oblivious to the line and hole I was practicing on to get out of the way. Which afforded me some time to reflect on what I was working on and to also observe how other people practice.

Take chipping for example,

Most of the guys that were practicing chipping were hitting chip shots from easy spots, such as the fringe or just in the rough near the fringe to holes that were pretty easy to get at. I watched one guy, he was practicing chipping and had a pretty tight dispersion. Another guy was doing okay, hitting some close and some in the 10 foot range.

As I watched these guys, I wondered if that is even the right way to practice and if it’s even worth it at all.

Most people can’t take their range game to the course, this includes putting and short game as well. Hell, I know in some tournaments that I putted poorly in I was rolling putts in everywhere on the putting green.

Which made my practice feel worthless, I’d go on the putting green, spend an hour and I’d putt great and then go out and play a few hours later and I would 3 putt everything. Then after my round I’d wonder if my practice was even worth it considering the results were so different. So what gives?

The answers to my questions started to come to me this week when I’ve been doing a lot of slow-motion drills with my full swing and trying to get the right technique down. As a result, I hit some truly awful shots on the range. Shanks, pulls, push’s and so on. But I wasn’t worried about where my ball ended up (as long as it didn’t go through a windshield), I was worried more about my technique and whether I was executing the movements correctly. That’s all I cared about.

Fast forward a few days later and I shoot my lowest score for 9 holes, 3 under. 4 birdies and a bogey. Then I was 3 under through 13 for the whole round until the rain came. I wasn’t hitting it great on the course but I certainly saw an improvement in my ball-striking.

The way I see it, golf can be broken down into some basic foundations.

1. Driving the ball
2. Approach shots
3. Pitch shots
4. Chipping
5. Putting

BUT within those foundations, you have many sub-skills. Let’s use a video for an example here.

Now, let’s break down all of the individual skills that were required to get that putt to roll in.

1. Speed
2. Line
3. Break
4. Stroke
5. Grass knowledge (grains, moisture, etc)
6. Proper Allignment

(And I’m sure I missed some, I am not perfect you know!)

We have 6 “Skills” that Tiger needed to have right to drain that putt.

Now, if we look at the way most players practice putting, they drop some balls on the practice green and start putting to holes. They try to make the short putts and give themselves 2 putts on the long putts. In other words, they are focused on the RESULT.

They are using their current level of skill in the 6 areas, to produce the result they want and if they drain the putt, it’s assumed that it was a good putt. But this isn’t necessarily true. You can hit a poor putt and still drain it and hit a great putt and miss it. They could spend an hour practicing on the greens and while they may make some putts and hit some really good ones, their level of skill in the 6 areas is going to stay the same.

They are essentially using their current level of skill in the 6 areas and continually putting, with that same skill level. So while it may seem that they are improving, they aren’t because their skill which makes up the RESULT which is (sinking the putt, or hitting a good putt) will stay the same.

To get good at golf, you need to practice individually on single skill sets.

And this, in my opinion is the “secret” to getting great at the game. You must practice your skill sets individually. If you’re practicing just the result, you’re only going to be using the same skill sets over and over. Which is why, I’ve shot my best 9 ever at Whistle Bear despite looking like an absolute disaster on the range. I’m changing my skillset (swing path) to hit a more consistent shot and in that time, all I am worried about is path. I’m focused on one objective. If I hit poor shots with good pathing, then I am happy.

So how could the average golfer practice their putting, in a way that would actually benefit them?

I’d say the best things you can do is do some gates, to make sure you’re having a good stroke that is impacting the ball square and then do some speed drills. Look at the hole, putt and then do strokes while looking at the hole and either lengthening your stroke or shortening it depending on where your original putt ended up. Don’t worry about making the putt, that doesn’t matter. We’re working on our skillsets, which if we improve our skill-sets we will improve our overall results.

I’m going to pull away from golf a little bit here and talk about another profession where you HAVE to learn the skill-sets before you can do your own thing. That profession is art, or more specifically fine-art. The fine-artists, must master a myriad of skills before they can go on their own and create their own works.

If an artist doesn’t understand proportions, their work isn’t going to look right. Things will be off. Same with light, if the light on a painting is wrong and the shadows are wrong then the won’t look right either. The great artists, such as Van – Gogh all mastered the basic techniques and skill sets before going on their own. If you look at a Picasso, it might look like Picasso doesn’t know how to paint.

Both works were made by Picasso. The 2nd painting is from when he was much younger and still an apprentice and the first painting is from when he was already an established professional artist. It’s not that Picasso couldn’t paint incredibly realistic pieces, it’s that he CHOSE not to but when he CHOSE not to, he had already mastered the basic techniques and fundamentals of art.

So how does this relate to golf?

An artist that skips mastering the skills necessary will have a very tough time creating “great” works of art. It will show in their work, what has been missing and what they struggle with. No one could re-create the relatively simple painting of the women unless they were Picasso and already had half a life-time of painting experience under their belt. Just like the painter our errors as golfers are also apparent to us, we miss putts on the course and we think we are bad at putting. So we work on it, but all we are doing is repetition of the same skill-set.

It’s the equivalent of the artist looking at one of their paintings and realizing they don’t understand light. So they do another painting, without actually studying light and guess what happens? The same error shows, a mis-understanding of light. That’s what us golfer do. We practice our same skill-sets, without ever improving them individually. Then we go to the course and wonder why we can’t perform, it’s because we still have never actually improved our skill – sets.

So what is the solution?

You should go to the practice tee or green with a skill set in mind and work on ONLY that skill set. Nothing else. If you’re going to do bunker work, practice one specific skill set. Like let’s say spin control, so all you do is work on adding and subtracting spin. You’re not concerned if you can get the ball close to the hole, you just want to practice your spin control. That’s a skill and then when you got to the course and hit one into the bunker you can look at the shot and determine exactly how much spin you want on the shot.

Don’t you see how much more applicable learning a skill is to improving your golf game than if you just hit 100 balls out of the bunker to a “flag” and called that practice?

So from now on, practice skill-sets only. Practice them individually or pair some together if you can. Don’t worry about the result, (if the ball gets close to the hole) worry about your execution of the skill and learning the skill.

Which explains why few people reach high-levels in golf and art. It’s because few want to spend hours doing slow motion drills or in the case of the artist, studying light.

Look at Leonardo Da Vinci, he found the study of light extremely fascinating and devoted a lot of time to making things as realistic as possible. How many artists, would do in-depth studies of light falling on a persons head.

So is it a surprise that Leonardo’s drawings anatomic drawings are so good they are still quite applicable even to this day?

To finish this post, I want to leave you with a quote I read recently.

“The hard stuff is always more rewarding long-term than the easy stuff. Do the stuff that is hard and boring, it’s going to be more beneficial.”

It’s hard to spend an hour doing slow – motion drills without a ball. It’s easy to spend an hour hitting balls. Which one do you think is more beneficial to your game?

So this is kinda my little journal. I use writing as a way to process thoughts and come to realizations, I’ve done it ever since I moved to Montreal right out of high school. There’s many journals in my closet filled, so it’s no surprise that I’m continuing the tradition with my golf journey.

Except in this case, I feel like sharing some more personal things that I would normally keep to myself.

Some posts are going to act as my own personal journal entry and this is one.

I wrote a post a few days ago titled Shattered Delusions and since then, my delusions have been even more shattered.

A huge thing, that constantly plays on my mind is that I’ve done nothing with golf. Literally nothing and I want to play pro or at a high level, I’ve studied great people (not just golfers) and the one thing that was pretty clear is how fast they learned and improved. Top golfers, were winning big amateur events, they were winning titles and having small successes. I haven’t done any of this, I haven’t even won anything worth while.

It fucks with my mind.

I wonder if it’s even worth it.

I think to myself, if I was able to reach the level that I desire. I should be winning more and playing better but then I also say that I haven’t properly trained nor have I had any lessons with a good coach. So I wonder, if you took those great amateurs and took away all of the lessons they’ve had and work they’ve done with their coach, where would they be? Is the missing ingredient to my golf game a coach who can guide me and teach me and provide structure to my game? Or is having a coach only going to make me a moderately better golfer than I currently am?

Do I just not have “it”?

Am I chasing something that I don’t have?

Or have I not put in the necessary work to get to the level I desire?

Am I trying to put a square peg in a round hole with golf?

I feel like the butt of a joke, I’m crazy competitive and I really want to win and do well in what I pursue but nothing I do, I seem to be good enough nor can I seem to reach the next level…

Golf is the one thing I (thought) was good and had potential in. I also guess you could call me a decent photographer, but I don’t know if I’m any special in that regard.

I just wish there was something that I could be great at or HAVE some signs that I am great at it. Golf hasn’t really done that….

Part of me wants to move on.

Part of me wants to say fuck it and keep going, at least put in the year commitment that I told myself I would and then take collection after that year.

At least then I can say I didn’t quit.

Idk man.

I wish my path was more clear-cut.

I wish I was like a Picasso, where I knew right from an early age what I was good at. Instead I’m trying to find something to give me the fulfillment I desire and it’s just not happening….

Well, so far it hasn’t happened.

It very well could. It would be a crazy story if I could pull off my golfing goals but I’m starting to wonder if I had any chance I should be showing some signs. Instead I got nothing (or very little). It sucks…..idk man.

I just idk.

If I could just get some success with golf, I could build off that but right now I’ve got nothing.

Anyway….

I’m probably coming across as complaining, sorry if I do. This would normally be a personal journal entry but instead I’m sharing it. You get what you get.

You know how many times I’ve been told I’m delusional? For every one person who believes in me, about 10 others think I’m nuts. I left The Sand Trap because I was getting 0 value from the place, everyone was telling me what I already knew and thinking that their points were original. I can handle criticism but why put myself in a place where I’m getting mostly ridiculed with very little value being received in return?

In my post, I told them that I was done with the forum and that I won’t be back. Now, since I’m writing this post I decided to take a peak and people are still posting in it. Expecting me to be back.

The funny thing is, everyone thinks I’ve quit. They think I’ve given up which I haven’t (not at all). I don’t want to spend too much time on this but here is a post from the owner of the forum.

I signed up for his Evolvr Program, his “very good instruction” was essentially a pro telling me to weaken my grip slightly and swing more upright. That’s about it. I posted some progress videos and no response. I was also told that I had used up my 3rd video by posting the progress video.

I felt like a cog in a wheel and it didn’t feel like it was worth my time. The type of instruction I needed was not online instruction, how can you instruct me (considering my aspirations) when you’ve never seen me even hit a ball. It didn’t feel like it was worth it.

So that’s why I quit.

I need a coach but I need someone who I can develop a real relationship with. Someone I can trust. Not someone from an online teaching program, even though they may be quite good instructors in real life.

Yeah, I shot 91. Bad round, lost ball on 1st hole and 2nd hole and 4th hole (plus 13th hole). Tried to get it back together on the 10th but I just fell apart. I hit it poorly, my putting was good and my short game wasn’t good. That was also probably my eighth round for the year, I was working midnights and was no where near ready for the event. I was also a fool and worked out a day before which made all my muscles stiff. Excuses? Meh. Probably. But the fact is I wasn’t prepared and losing 3 balls in 3 holes doesn’t help.

This is a good place to leave off. It eats at me that I haven’t really won anything noteworthy, sometimes I wonder what’s the fucking point when I’ve basically done nothing. I like how everyone has my story figured out, yet my rounds and scores are legit. I have broken par for 18, I have had good rounds, I can perform. It’s just a question of consistency. I fall apart in tournament play (and I hope I improve on that this year).

“But….. destined to succeed because he wants fame and fortune.”

This is interesting. I don’t really care about those things, which is a great segue into WHY am I pursuing this goal? Why do I want to compete? What drives me?

It’s not fame, nor fortune. I could give two shits about that really. Before taking golf seriously, I just wanted to explore the world and live in the forest, away from people, completely self reliant. Maybe have a special girl with me too but that’s about it.

The main reason I am pursuing this goal is because it’s a pursuit of excellence.

I think everyman, deep within has the desire to be the best person they can be and to perform at a high level in whatever discipline or industry or interest you have in your life. Some guys may have this beat out of them but I think it’s just a basic need as a man, or just as a person in general.

So that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing, it’s a pursuit of excellence, to see how good I can get at the game and challenge myself.

Playing pro, Mackenzie Tour, etc are just destinations. The journey is what I am after and right now, I am loving the journey. I love everything about it and I want to see how good I can get at the game.

I went on a short trip yesterday just to get away from things down to Point Pelee, the trip was great and while reflecting on the beach looking at the waves, I realized that my journey is different than anyone else and the only thing that really matters is improvement. As long as I am improving, I see no reason to stop pursuing my dream. Who knows where I will end up. Maybe I get to play on the Mackenzie Tour, maybe I’ll get on the PGA Tour, maybe I’ll play as a successful amateur, maybe I’ll play as an older player at a college, maybe I’ll finally hit my stride when I’m 40. I have no idea. Right now, the journey has just began and the destination is unknown as I can’t predict the future.

As long as I am enjoying the game, meeting cool people and enjoying watching myself improve, that’s all I can ask for and that’s all I really want.

With that said, I need to learn to give myself credit and realize that I’m not going to go out and shoot a 66 (yet). My average at Whistle Bear is around a +3, so I need to lower that. If I go out and shoot a +1, that’s a huge win. Same with the events I’m entered in, I’m playing this weekend in two events. If I play well, I might win but even a 5th place position is something I should be happy with. It’s improvement and like I said, that’s what I am after and that’s what I’m coming to realize, I need to compare myself to Jason Coull and no one else. This also makes the game more enjoyable because now my standards are more realistic and achievable. Like I said, it’s stepping stones, I can’t think pro golf if I haven’t even won small amateur events. 

Eventually, I believe I will win and become successful. It is a question of time (and hard work obviously). Since moving to Whistle Bear a lot of things have sort of fallen into place and I may have found a coach who I can really trust with my game. So we’ll see where that leads me, something tells me I am doing the right things even though I may not have the success that I desire just yet but I do believe it is coming.

So far;

I’ve secured a great job at a top restaurant, they are willing to work with my golf dreams and completely schedule my shifts around that. The work is entirely flexible and the money is quite good.

I’ve made connections with two pros, one is a current teaching pro and the other a retired pro from back in the day. I just played a round with the old pro yesterday and I hope to impress him in our future rounds together. I’m looking at getting some coaching from the current teaching pro as well. 

Things are slowly going my way and like I said, right now it’s an extremely fun journey. I’m looking at going down to the states in the winter and I’ll be doing a lot of golf and visiting some National Parks. I love it. 

But if for whatever reason the dream dies, then so be it. I know for a fact I won’t look back when I am on my death bed and wish I never pursued pro golf. That’s where my heart is and that’s what I will follow.

This is the first post in a series of things that I need to remember to help me play better golf.

It will act as a sort of archive that myself (and you) can look back on. Think of this in a similar format to Harvey Penicks Little Red Book. Now let’s get onto the topic at hand.

You Don’t Need To Play The Perfect Shot.

Ahh, the perfect shot. How elusive and yet sought after it is in golf, but is it mandatory? Is it something even worth achieving? In some ways, I think it is but I also think it’s important not to get too caught up in it, you can play great golf with mediocre/okay shots. They don’t all HAVE to be great.

There’s a quote I really like on this topic.

“It’s more important to be decisive than it is to be correct. Stop seeking to be correct. Be More more decisive.”

I LOVE this quote and I need to remind myself of this.

Be more decisive on the course, pick your shot and play it. Stop worrying about whether you executed it correctly. There’s another quote on this topic that I also find insightful.

“The practice swing of most ordinary players almost always carries most of the main ingredients.  The fundamentals are there.  But when they are in a match, the difference is terrific.  The feet are no longer easily set.  There is a cramped body turn.  Hands and wrists are rigid.  When this happened to me, I began thinking in terms of performance, not results.  By this I mean I had no thought beyond the ball — of traps, ponds, rough, or out of bounds.  All I did was to go back to my good practice swing, on which I could count, and then to think with my swing, not ahead of the swing.  This takes will power, but it isn’t so hard to let your mind relax and say to yourself, “Here goes my practice swing—and I don’t care where the ball lights or lands.  If I can’t play like a good golfer in actual play, at least I can go back to my practice swing and let nature take its course.” Call on your will power to “let the rest of the world go by,” and dust that thing with the form you have when nobody is watching — and watch your score go down.  Climb inside your old, regular personality, not the one that wants to take you over when the pressure is on. ” -Snead, Sam. The Education of a Golfer.

Sam Snead thought back to execution, not results and I love that because it ties directly into being decisive and not so worried about perfection. Not worrying about where the shot goes, just executing that good old practice swing that you can fall back on.

In my own game, I find that if I focus on releasing the club in the practice swing, I can carry over that free “wheeling” release through the ball in my actual swing. Which solves my problem of becoming way too much ball bound and “hit” bound.

Golf is like a dance, it should look elegant tempo and rhythm wise. You don’t get that beautiful tempo if you are “hitting” the ball.

The ball gets in the way. Always.

That’s the only pic I have of my bag, but here’s a full breakdown.

• Driver: TaylorMade Jet Speed, X Stiff Bi-Matrix Shaft (I hate this club)
• 3 Wood – Ping G20
• Hybrid – Ping G20 3H
• Irons (2-PW) – Ben Hogan Apex FTX
• Wedges – 54 Titleist Vokey, 58 TaylorMade
• Putter – Cleveland By Design

My bag is really mixed, most of the stuff I’m running has been 2nd hand stuff, except for the irons which I had custom fitted for me but even those, have their problems which I know will hold me back.

Before we go into my experience at Modern, let me preface with this. I never went into this fitting session and the idea of getting new clubs thinking all of my problems would be cured. Clubs can only do so MUCH but I know, that there was potential I was leaving on the table with the clubs I was using.

My brother (who also competes and I hit 5 yards past) almost always plays less club than I do into the green. Let’s say it’s a 170 yard par 3, I’ll hit a 6 and he’ll hit an 7. He hits his 3 iron 210,205 and I can get at most about 205 yards off my 2 iron. Certainly there’s something going on here if I can out drive him but he hits his irons way further than I do.

So I knew that somehow my irons were coming up shorter than others and I know it has nothing to do with lofts because my irons aren’t THAT old. They’re not from the 70’s. The lofts which I had checked are relatively consistent + normal compared to most other irons (except the juicers at TaylorMade).

I think it’s important to go into a fitting session and making the decision to buy new clubs with realistic expectations. I wanted about 10ish yards on my irons and another 10ish yards on my driver, with more consistency.

In the case of the driver, I fucking HATE my JetSpeed. I don’t even have a love – hate relationship with it. It’s almost all hate and there were many times where I felt like launching the damn thing into the River. My JetSpeed is inconsistent and has an abysmal carry of 240ish yards. I expected to get another 10 yards of carry out of a new driver and possibly some more distance.

With that out of the way, lets’s get into the experience.

Modern Golf is a pretty cool place, it’s not at all what I expected. It’s in an industrial part of town and it doesn’t have that gimmicky, salesy feeling that places like GolfTown have. There’s no retail aspect, it’s strictly club fitting so you’re not bombarded right away with off the rack stuff. Which I always thought was strange, you’d go to a place to get fitted and the first thing you see is off the rack equipment. Odd.

Modern Golf feels like you’re going into a premiere experience, like you’re getting sent into the lab to get fitted. It’s very cool. The lights are dimmed and the place feels very open, shafts dot the walls and all of the club heads are stored neatly in drawers. Where the clubmakers work is in this enclosed glass room. Modern Golf has a very open feeling inside and yet when you’re in there, you know you’re about to put some serious work in.

I think other fitting places and golf retailers should pull some ideas from Modern Golf. Golf is a game with so much tradition and most fitting areas are kinda messy, not very appealing nor is there any real thoughts put into the design of the fitting station and rooms. Modern Golf felt like they put a lot of effort into this part of their business. It certainly shows and immediately brings you into their atmosphere the minute you step in the door.

Once you’re through the door, you’re greeted by the receptionist who takes your bag and walks you to meet your fitter. I had Matt, who was awesome. What I liked about Matt was that he was just another guy like myself, I didn’t feel like I had to be someone I wasn’t. I could joke around with him and we talked golf as he was doing his own thing.

Another thing to note is that Modern Golf has almost all younger guys working there, which is really cool. It’s nice to see younger dudes taking an interest in club performance and fitting.

Once we had made our introductions, Matt started to do some preliminary tests on my current irons. He tested frequency, lie angle, CPM, loft etc. Here’s some pictures I got of Matt doing his thing here.

This process took about 10-15 minutes and we mostly talked about golf.

After Matt was done he took us back to my individual bay and I began to warm up, hitting light wedges into the simulator. Then I stepped it up to a 7 iron and hit some easy 7 irons. Once I was ready, Matt had me hit my 6 iron and I started to begin picking up speed.

I hit my current irons quite well, no doubt and it showed when we looked at the data. My dispersions were decent and even Matt said so. After I hit some more 6 irons, Matt took me aside and told me what was going on with my current irons which is basically that they are spinning too much, which is where the loss of distance was coming from (I knew I was losing distance, I’m not crazy.)

Matt then had me hit some more irons, I tried a few different set-ups. The first one he had me on was the PX Lz 6.0 APEX PRO (I can’t tell you about the shaft set-ups cause I don’t really understand it fully) but the Apex Pro’s were too spinny.

After that we went to the Modus120S Z785 which were putting up good numbers. These felt good in my hands and I liked the feel through the ball, plus the top-line wasn’t super wide like some other irons.

Up next was the Modus120S JPX 919 FORGED which I HATE. Idk why, but I’ve never liked Mizuno’s clubs, maybe because I’m a lefty and all of the great stuff is only for right handers or maybe it’s not but I’ve never hit a Mizuno iron and said to myself “wow that felt great.” crazy I know.

Next we move back to the Apex Pro but this time with a Modus120S shaft, these irons I hit well but they were very inconsistent. Some shots went as far as 180 yards and others 165 yards.

They were too inconsistent.

Then we tried the Modus120S Apex Forged, which gave me a huge distance increase but again too inconsistent.

There was a point where we kept going back to the Srixon Z785 which gave me a great dispersion and surprisingly, a lot of distance. Compared to my old irons and the Srixons, I was looking at a 15 yard increase which was a pleasant surprise while maintaining a decent spin rate. All we needed now was to do a few tweak with grip size and we were good to go.

Srixon Z785 with the Modus 120s shaft, mid-sized grips it is.

By now, I was getting kind of tired and we still had the driver to do. Matt took my current POS (Jet Speed) and did the tests on it and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was but he also said that the guys were making fun of JetSpeed a few days ago when another customer brought one in. I guess they’re not TaylorMades best…eh?

I hit a few drivers into the SIM and the results were pretty much what I knew, bad carry distance but funnily enough though, I never hit one of my dreaded pull hooks with my driver. I actually hit most of the shots quite well and my dispersion shows it. Of course, I went to play a few holes later that day at Whistle Bear and the pull hooks came out.

Anyway, I hit a few drivers. I tried the Callaway Epic Flash, it was okay. I hated the sound of the bloody thing though.

Then I tried a Cobra which was decent but not the best. It didn’t really have the distance I was looking for, it was the same as my old driver really.

Then I tried the TS2, which I like the numbers but the look and feel were a little jarring. Although, it DID grow on me. Especially after seeing the carry I was getting with it.

At this point I was dead tired, we experimented with different shaft combinations and ultimately settled on the TS2 Evenflow White 6.0 which gave me about 15 yards of carry and I suspect a bit more total distance on the course as well. Which is perfect.

My irons I gained 15 yards (which was more than I expected) and my driver about 15 yards which was also more than I expected.

During the entire fitting process Matt was great, he knew exactly what he was talking about and I felt I could trust him with fitting me. I never once questioned his authority on the subject and he never really gave me reason to. Some places I’ve gone to get fitted, I’ve felt like I was just being ushered into the most expensive option or suckered into a deal that wasn’t right for me but I never felt that with Matt. Nor was I pitched any special shafts or anything of the like, maybe he wasn’t doing his job in the eyes of his boss but as a customer and especially as someone who is very serious about their game and is putting a lot of trust in someone else to determine what I need. I think the sales pitch is best left at home. I came into the experience knowing that I was going to buy whatever was best for me and I never once felt like there was a bad taste being left behind.

In a business like Modern Golf’s, sales are of course important but I think whats even more important is developing a good relationship with your customer and I definitely think Matt has done that.

I can’t speak for the mid-high handicapper here, but as a scratch player that is very serious about improving I couldn’t have left happier. Like I said, I got EXACTLY what I wanted out the session which was more distance and a bit more control. That’s all I wanted, the rest will come down to working on my swing….

Speaking of working on my game, I should end this, I have a 2 day match play event on the weekend. I need to put in some good hours practicing.

2 days ago I shot 72, yesterday I shot 79. The difference?

Focus.

I striked the ball well enough, I putted better yesterday and my short game was okay but I only shot a 79. I couldn’t focus. The focus that I had was not there.

I knew it too.

I remember lining up a shot thinking, man I need to focus more on this but I just couldn’t be bothered.

The focus was gone…

Now looking back, I’m wondering how to get into that level of focus that I had 2 days ago. What can I do to get myself there?

One thing I really liked having was pin-placement sheets, it gave me something to focus on right off the first tee. Instead of just guessing where the hell the pin was (there’s no indicators). Having to do a little subtraction to get the distances to the back of the green and the sides, automatically put me into a focused mode. It told me, “okay we have to play now, it’s time to focus.”

I think without the placement sheets, it’s hard for me to get into the game. My mind can’t seen to differentiate between playing golf and practicing / messing around. Which was a problem I certainly had yesterday. I just couldn’t take the round seriously enough to shoot a decent score.

The pin placement sheets are nice but you can’t get them everywhere (especially at my level) so I need to figure out some form of trigger to get my mind into a focused state. When I think of this problem I think of Ben Hogan who had to block everything out in order to play well, which gave him the nickname The Hawk. It’s tough to block everything out though, especially when the people you’re playing with want to be friends and talk. I’m a social guy so it’s tough to just quiet up but when I do, I usually play well.

I remember reading something about being able to drop out of focus when you are walking but then focus and get down to business when you are approaching your shot. Maybe I should try something like being my normal self when I’m playing with members but then when I get about 15 yards from the ball, everything fades away and I focus intensely.

I don’t really know.

What I do know is that I have skill and I can play a great game but my biggest issue is my focus. I need to figure that out.

Reflecting back on the score I put up yesterday afternoon, which was my best tournament score to date (yeah you’ll hear my talking about this a lot), I was thinking about what I did differently (or what have I done differently lately, that allowed me to shoot what I did). Upon deep reflection, I’ve come back to two drills that I’ve been doing in regards to my swing and my general approach to it.

This is an older video of my swing (yes 1 week is old because I’ve worked on it a lot since then.) I’ve always had a decent backswing but my downswing has always been ugly, it looks like I’m chopping at the ball and honestly it sometimes feels like that. I’ve tried a lot of different techniques to free up my downswing, specifically relating to the ugly dip I do with my head (0:11). I remember one time someone told me it looks like that I’m trying to keep my head down (which was drilled into me at a young age). So this is what I’ve been working on, freeing up my body and becoming less ball bound. When I’m swinging my best, it feels like I’m going through the ball and when I’m an absolute mess it feels like I am hitting at the ball which is a product of being told to keep my eye on the ball and keep my head down.

Now, how have I been working on this?

2 Ways.

1. Hitting full shots with my eyes closed
2. Hitting shots with my head looking at the target.

I have no idea how this would apply to high handicappers, perhaps I’m blessed with the ability to do these things without any thought but this is what has been working for me.

I remember a George Knudson quote that talked about how he used to practice with swinging with his eyes closed and how he once shot a low 60’s round doing so. Which is what brought me to the idea in the first place.

When I swing with my eyes closed, it feels like I can FINALLY allow myself to release through the ball in a powerful manner and I completely remove the ball from the equation which in my opinion has been the root of a lot of my problems.

Of course, when I am playing I’m looking at the ball and my eyes are open but practicing with my eyes closed really helps with feeling your swing and the movement. It frees me up and the results have spoken for themselves.

So what about my 2nd drill, where I swing looking at the target? This serves a slightly different purpose but it helps to take the head out of the equation and it’s great for working on touch. You can’t really do this with a fullswing (try it) you’ll find your body restricted which is probably why Jack Nicklaus used to turn his head away from his target slightly on his backswing, it frees up the movement just as turning your head towards the target tightens up the movement.

Both have been very beneficial and are probably going to become core drills in my golf game, as they free me up and teach me how to make a good solid move THROUGH the ball, not at the ball and I find it relatively easy to carry over the feelings I have when I swing during these drills into hitting a ball with my eyes open….

So that’s the 2 drills that have really been helping me lately, and you can do them with basically any club including the putter. In fact, putting with your eyes closed is a great way to develop feel and speed.