Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail

[Richie3Jack]

I really like the laser rangefinders that take into account the slope. They're illegal for tournament play, although I've never quite agreed with it because you still have to execute the shot and there are too many other factors like temperature, wind, lie, humidity, etc. that factor in a golf shot.

When I was a junior golfer playing in a big local junior tournament, I took the idea of hitting shots from the closest yardage marker and seeing what they played like and make note of what club I needed to hit from there.

This came in handy in this instance as I noticed that the 150 marker on the 18th hole was off...wayyy off. Like a 2 club longer off.

Meanwhile, the other juniors playing their practice round where mostly keeping score of some sorts, not really playing close attention to the course nuances and essentially just getting a general feel for the course.

Come to the tournament I hit 18 and hit a driver down the middle. Took 2 extra clubs on the second shot, 2 putted and made par.

This put me in a playoff for medalist against a kid that I more or less had a grudge against that extended to other sports like baseball and basketball.

It was actually a crazy rivalry. I was named league MVP in baseball in 4 different seasons with 3 different teams. He was a Dave Kingman-esque type hitter...he'd hit some bombs, but he would strike out a ton and his batting average was mediocre at best. But when he got a hold of one...look out.

But in baseball, where I was known for pitching, he OWNED me. I only recall getting him out twice in our entire baseball matchup against each other, and that was the last two times I faced him (I struck him out both times). But not only could I not get him out, he would usually crank a home run. And to make it worse, it was usually the variety of home run that were hit so far it was borderline ridiculous.

And he was wildly popular with people as well.

One time we were playing in a tournament and he missed a 3-footer and whacked the ball with his putter off the green in anger, never putting out.

I simply waited for him and he asked 'what are you doing?'

I replied 'you are still away.'

He then yelled at me for being such a stickler to the rules and then finished out the hole after finding his golf ball. That sort of set things off against us, but what surprised me was when the rules committee *considered* not making him count the extra shots he had to hit when he didn't putt out. And nobody wanted to disagree with him because he was such a popular person...that was except for the old pro who objected that they would greatly destroy the integrity of the game by allowing that to happen.

Anyway, this was a really heated rivalry as far as junior golf goes.

The one thing I really remember about that playoff was how many people were following us, probably close to 200 people...which is quite a bit for a small junior golf tournament. And roughly all but 4 of them were rooting for the other guy.

He bombed a drive right down the middle. I hit a drive well, but pulled it left. Even worse, I'm under a tree and can't hit a shot right handed.

But, I still had some hope. I *knew* he didn't know how long the shot played from that hole and I knew that if I could get the ball out from under the tree into the fairway, I could still hit the green...possibly make par and certainly make a bogey.

I then punched the shot left handed and actually hit it quite well, right in the fairway.

And sure enough, he landed about 2 clubs short on his approach and I knocked my shot on the green leaving myself with a 25 foot putt for par.

He still had a very makeable up and down. And he chipped his shot to about 5 feet.

I then make the 25 footer and my 4 friends, the only guys that wanted me to win, where high fiving each other while the rest of the crowd was really silent (which surprised me since usually a golf crowd would clap after that remarkable save). He then missed his putt and I won the tournament.

Part of the moral of the story is that if you fail to prepare you prepare to fail. But the other part is while I like GPS systems and Rangefinders, you really need to understand what the shot actually 'plays like.'




3JACK

[jerryg]

Great story with great lesssons. Thanks Richie.
Since this thread is about preparation, I would like to think I am not the only high school golf coach reading this and would like to invite other coaches to step in and share their thoughts on helping their players prepare for golf meets/tournaments.

[Richie3Jack]

Got this from NYC Lagster's blog (http://gothamgolfblog.blogspot.com) in his Q&A with Lag Erickson.

These laser yardage scopes are another nightmare. Today I played with a really good college player who used one all day, while I never once stepped off a yardage, I just eyeballed everything. As far as distance control, I was inside him 14 times during the round. He’s a good player, but most of the greens he missed were long or short.. because we was not taking the time to feel the shot. It’s no different than lag putting, you have to feel it.

I agree a lot with this although I actually like the range finders. Unfortunately the ones that are really good are the ones that account for slope and those are not legal for tournament play, which still makes little sense to me. But, that's the USGA for you.

Where I agree with Lag is that golfers are way too reliant on rangfinders and GPS today. I think it's best as a ballpark thing and the rangefinders with slope are excellent for planning for tournaments and such to understand how a hole plays. For example, the 10th hole at one of the courses I play at is quite a bit downhill. But for quite some time I kept hitting shots short of the green and couldn't buy into needing more club. Eventually a golfing buddy of mine took out the Laser RangeFinder with slope and found that the slope only causes a 4 yard difference. I was probably playing it like 15-20 yard difference.

Still, I think too many golfers have those GPS and Rangefinders but have zero idea how to account for wind, humidity and IMO most importantly, topography.

The 6th hole at a course I play is a great example of understanding topography. I probably have a higher rate of hitting that GIR than anybody at our course. Part of it is because the drive sets up pretty well for my stock shot driver (small fade). But the other part is understanding that the green is slightly elevated and the lie on the approach shot is slightly downhill. That takes at least 1 club off the distance you can hit the ball. So time and time again I see golfers come up woefully short and can't believe it. I didn't even have to practice that, just from golfing experience I could tell that the topography was going to force me to hit at least an extra club. But what's funny is if you hit the ball in another spot, the lie flattens out. The green is slightly elevated, but because you have a flat lie, you can pretty much hit the club you usually use from the same distance.

Uphill lies are a bit tricky. On a slighly uphill lie you can actually go too far. It's almost like hitting slightly upward with a driver in that the launch will go higher thus causing the shot to carry further. But you can easily get a lie that is too uphill and then you need to hit extra club because you will be hitting the ball more or less straight up into the air.

GPS and Rangefinders have been around for awhile, so I figure the college golfer Lag is talking about really doesn't have a ton of experience of feeling out the yardage and factoring all of the things that can impact the distance of the shot.

If I was coaching a golf team, I would probably own a Rangefinder with Slope so you can scout the courses and the yardage markers. If it's your team's home course, then I would force the kids to practice there without any GPS and Rangefinder so they can really learn how to 'feel the shot.' Then before a match or a tourney, kind of go over some of the notes on the yardage. I would also consider testing some of the players. For instance, lets say they have a very elevated green with a flat lie and the wind blowing a certain direction, I'd ask them to go over their thought process and what club they are using, etc and why.

My courses usually have GPS on the cart. But it's really just a ballpark figure for me and then I have to figure in other factors.



3JACK

[jerryg]

I imagine there are lots of stories about rangefinders and gps units speeding up play, but I've not experienced it. Indeed, in October I was in a 4-some that included a guy with no game and too much rangefinder. He used his rangefinder from the first tee. He hit his drive left, walked to his ball and took out his rangefinder. Thinned his second shot to approximately 80 yards. Took out his rangefinder, took his measurement, put it back, addressed the ball, swung, topped the ball another 15 yds or so. He walked to his ball, pulled out the rangefinder, took the reading, put it back in the bag, addressed the ball, swung, another bad shot. He used the rangefinder all the way to the green and had a nice smooth 9.

[Richie3Jack]

A couple of golf buddies of mine have the same exact GPS model but they keep getting different yardages. What's funny is that it may be say, 8 yards off, from each other. But they'll still bitch and get all confused when the yardages are 1 yard off from each other. Just hit the ball.




3JACK