Post by Richie3Jack on Mar 20, 2014 13:14:02 GMT -5
I've been to Bay Hill twice before, but never for the practice round. On the weekend Bay Hill is a pretty cool place because it is surrounded by houses and there is a real party atmosphere. And that area really revolves around the tournament the week of the event. It's a little weird in that most of the houses are magnificent, but then you get a few stray houses that seem really out of place.
They gave us free parking for the practice round out by the 6th hole. For those that have never attended an event, you really need to make note to pace yourself because you're going to walk a lot more yards than the length of the course indicates. A 450 yard par-4 can have you easily walking more like 550 yards. That and the terrain can get much hillier on the outer edge of the hole.
I like Bay Hill and the more I walked around the course the more I began to like it. From a statistical perspective it is a course where you need to know when to hit driver versus when to lay-up. And it doesn't completely favor longer hitters because some holes they need to hit it 'only' 280-295 yards and they don't have the 3-wood for that, but the driver plays too long for them.
I often hear 'the pros don't take big divots.' I wouldn't say they were taking football sized divots, but they certainly take some pretty good sized divots. I was curious to see what the ball flights looked like with the drivers so I could compare it to mine. I would say that my ball flight goes about the same height as say Brian Gay and he's been roughly at an average max height for the Tour. We also generate about the same club head speed. I was surprised to see how much lower they tend to tee the ball.
One topic of conversation on the internet has been foot flare. My feeling is that foot flare is neither 'right' or 'wrong', but just what it does for the golfer's swing and then figuring out what type of foot flare (or lack thereof) the golfer needs to fit their swing and abilities. I can see the lack of foot flare in the rear foot making it easier to keep the rear foot flat in the backswing and getting the majority of the pressure on the ball of the right foot at p4. I can also see how squaring the rear foot will allow for more external hip rotation in the downswing because there is a greater range of motion to be had. But, if you square the rear foot the hips will likely stop rotating at about p3 and the arms will lift and create an upright backswing plane and that will require a larger compensation to get the shaft plane. I have similar thoughts about the lead foot as well. And from what we see in the greats, usually they have lead foot flare of about 10-20 degrees and rear foot flare around 5 degrees.
Anyway, I started to see less foot flare of the rear foot than I can remember in years past. Scott Stalling had no foot flare in either foot. Although he was hitting it quite shitty.
They have 2 pro-ams at Bay Hill. One on Monday and the other on Wednesday. To play in the Pro-Am, the fee is $8k. You'll see players of all kinds. From very good amateur golfers, to complete hackers to high school kids. Brian Gay's group needed to go eagle, birdie, birdie eagle (with handicap) in order to tie and did just that as one amateur did that by himself and chipped in on the 2nd to last hole and then drilled a 30-footer on the last hole. I got a kick out of watching Angel Cabrera because he is not the most fan friendly golfer and they paired him with 2 old Japanese ladies and of their husbands that decided to putt everything out. Unintentional comedy at its finest.
Really like the way one of my guys, Daniel Summerhays, is striking the ball right now. He had PING make him a new putter...a B60 model with no alignment line. I watched Chad Collins who didn't seem to miss. Seung Yul-Noh was great but appears to have trouble transitioning that to the course. He would hit every shot very well and still bitch after every 3rd shot.
Rod Pampling hits it roughly dick-high to a grasshopper.
Nicolas Colsaerts could really bomb it, but he struggled with his trajectory. He would hit some moon rockets, then some low bullets...and not on purpose.
Billy Horschel probably hit it higher than anybody I saw out there outside of Keegan Bradley.
I was surprised how high Zach Johnson was hitting it off the tee. Something tells me that he's been reading Pro Golf Synopsis.
However, it was funny to see these guys on the range. Whenever they started struggling with the driver for a few shots, they would immediately start lowering the window.
Patrick Reed is on the verge of being an extremely popular golfer.
The talk of the Tour and putting is AimPoint Express. Getting to the point where the mid-reads are either no longer being used or just used as a double-check to help out. Some guys are still skeptical about its accuracy, but this is what I was asked about after my AimPoint Express review.
There were a few holes in particular that I scouted for future tournament analysis for my clients. It helps to see a course live and get an idea of what the players are thinking versus what the numbers say. I did pick up a couple more clients, so I'm excited to start working with them.
To me, I started to come away with the feeling of how important the mental game is to being successful on Tour. So many of these guys can hit superb shots. The holes where being long and straight off the tee are beneficial are really just the super long par-4's and the par-5's. But I think there is a lack of trust in their skill and they often try to 'not lose the tournament in one hole' instead of trying to hit the shots that they are capable of hitting. I think that is what separates the Seung-Yul Noh's from the Rory McIlroy's and the Chad Collins from the Jim Furyk's.
3JACK
They gave us free parking for the practice round out by the 6th hole. For those that have never attended an event, you really need to make note to pace yourself because you're going to walk a lot more yards than the length of the course indicates. A 450 yard par-4 can have you easily walking more like 550 yards. That and the terrain can get much hillier on the outer edge of the hole.
I like Bay Hill and the more I walked around the course the more I began to like it. From a statistical perspective it is a course where you need to know when to hit driver versus when to lay-up. And it doesn't completely favor longer hitters because some holes they need to hit it 'only' 280-295 yards and they don't have the 3-wood for that, but the driver plays too long for them.
I often hear 'the pros don't take big divots.' I wouldn't say they were taking football sized divots, but they certainly take some pretty good sized divots. I was curious to see what the ball flights looked like with the drivers so I could compare it to mine. I would say that my ball flight goes about the same height as say Brian Gay and he's been roughly at an average max height for the Tour. We also generate about the same club head speed. I was surprised to see how much lower they tend to tee the ball.
One topic of conversation on the internet has been foot flare. My feeling is that foot flare is neither 'right' or 'wrong', but just what it does for the golfer's swing and then figuring out what type of foot flare (or lack thereof) the golfer needs to fit their swing and abilities. I can see the lack of foot flare in the rear foot making it easier to keep the rear foot flat in the backswing and getting the majority of the pressure on the ball of the right foot at p4. I can also see how squaring the rear foot will allow for more external hip rotation in the downswing because there is a greater range of motion to be had. But, if you square the rear foot the hips will likely stop rotating at about p3 and the arms will lift and create an upright backswing plane and that will require a larger compensation to get the shaft plane. I have similar thoughts about the lead foot as well. And from what we see in the greats, usually they have lead foot flare of about 10-20 degrees and rear foot flare around 5 degrees.
Anyway, I started to see less foot flare of the rear foot than I can remember in years past. Scott Stalling had no foot flare in either foot. Although he was hitting it quite shitty.
They have 2 pro-ams at Bay Hill. One on Monday and the other on Wednesday. To play in the Pro-Am, the fee is $8k. You'll see players of all kinds. From very good amateur golfers, to complete hackers to high school kids. Brian Gay's group needed to go eagle, birdie, birdie eagle (with handicap) in order to tie and did just that as one amateur did that by himself and chipped in on the 2nd to last hole and then drilled a 30-footer on the last hole. I got a kick out of watching Angel Cabrera because he is not the most fan friendly golfer and they paired him with 2 old Japanese ladies and of their husbands that decided to putt everything out. Unintentional comedy at its finest.
Really like the way one of my guys, Daniel Summerhays, is striking the ball right now. He had PING make him a new putter...a B60 model with no alignment line. I watched Chad Collins who didn't seem to miss. Seung Yul-Noh was great but appears to have trouble transitioning that to the course. He would hit every shot very well and still bitch after every 3rd shot.
Rod Pampling hits it roughly dick-high to a grasshopper.
Nicolas Colsaerts could really bomb it, but he struggled with his trajectory. He would hit some moon rockets, then some low bullets...and not on purpose.
Billy Horschel probably hit it higher than anybody I saw out there outside of Keegan Bradley.
I was surprised how high Zach Johnson was hitting it off the tee. Something tells me that he's been reading Pro Golf Synopsis.
However, it was funny to see these guys on the range. Whenever they started struggling with the driver for a few shots, they would immediately start lowering the window.
Patrick Reed is on the verge of being an extremely popular golfer.
The talk of the Tour and putting is AimPoint Express. Getting to the point where the mid-reads are either no longer being used or just used as a double-check to help out. Some guys are still skeptical about its accuracy, but this is what I was asked about after my AimPoint Express review.
There were a few holes in particular that I scouted for future tournament analysis for my clients. It helps to see a course live and get an idea of what the players are thinking versus what the numbers say. I did pick up a couple more clients, so I'm excited to start working with them.
To me, I started to come away with the feeling of how important the mental game is to being successful on Tour. So many of these guys can hit superb shots. The holes where being long and straight off the tee are beneficial are really just the super long par-4's and the par-5's. But I think there is a lack of trust in their skill and they often try to 'not lose the tournament in one hole' instead of trying to hit the shots that they are capable of hitting. I think that is what separates the Seung-Yul Noh's from the Rory McIlroy's and the Chad Collins from the Jim Furyk's.
3JACK