I was apprehensive as I watched the drama unfold at the 72nd hole of the PGA.  I had gone out for dinner and I DVR’ed the end so this was a few hours later.  My dad said “it was interesting.”  So I was watching from where I had left off, wondering what that meant.

When I saw where Dustin Johnson’s tee ball on 18 had ended up, CBS ran that “golf track” graphic, to show where it had landed and it looked like it was in a bunker.  It seemed clear to me at the time that he was lying on top of some kind of sand, so I just assumed he knew it was a bunker.  As I had said before, I was nervous about how this was going to end, and the instant his club hit the ground and he subsequently stepped out of his stance, my heart skipped a beat.  ”Did he just ground his club in a bunker?”  I figured since none of the commentators said anything, maybe it wasn’t really a bunker and I was just worrying for nothing.  Well he grounded his club again for the second time and when they, again, didn’t say anything, I assumed maybe they probably knew something I didn’t.  Perhaps it was classified as a waste bunker, or maybe it was just worn out ground, whatever.

It’s kind of funny how your first instinct is usually the best one and, in this case, my fears turned out to be correct.  And I didn’t even know about the local rule that all sand-trap-ish areas on that course were bunkers anyway.

A lot of the reaction has been that the rule was stupid, or it didn’t give Johnson an immediate advantage or that golf should decide who wins and loses, not rules of the game.  These are all ridiculous arguments.  

First, the tournament was clear that all bunkers are bunkers, regardless of where they are or who is standing in them.  This may be unusual, but that was part of what made Whistling Straits interesting… It’s a wild course.  They had been playing that rule all week.  Maybe it should have been a waste bunker; that’s irrelevant.  It wasn’t and it’s far too late to do anything about that.  

Second, grounding your club in the bunker gives you an advantage.  Throughout the tournament, no player in a bunker was allowed to ground their club in a bunker, so if Johnson had, wouldn’t that be an advantage?  Additionally, aside from letting you test the surface of the sand, grounding the club behind the ball makes the setup easier, and will help you make cleaner contact.

Finally, the rules of golf are important.  All sports have rules and there are penalties for breaking them.  Earlier in the season, Brian Davis lost in a playoff to Jim Furyk after he grazed a reed in a hazard while taking the club back.  It may seem like a trivial violation: clipping a reed in a hazard or resting your club in the sand before you hit the ball.  It may seem ridiculous that you can be penalized for doing something that doesn’t move or affect your ball.  But these “trivial” rules are part of larger themes.  Hazards are penal areas.  They’re meant to be harsh, their rules are intentionally strict.  Keep your ball in the short grass (or even the rough) and you’ll avoid these problems.  Had Dustin Johnson missed the fairway by only 20 yards, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

The rules of golf are an important part of the game.  Know them, learn what you can and cannot do while on the course.  And, please, if you’re ever leading on the 72nd hole at the PGA and your drive ends up in something that even remotely resembles a bunker, don’t ground your club.

I wanted to share this link, because I bought some used golf balls from this website, and I have to say I’m really pleased.  www.lostgolfballs.com

I like playing expensive balls.  They handle better around the greens, they’re longer off the tee and they have a great feel off the putter-face.  The only problem is, I hit a drive that finds the trees… a lot.  So losing $4 balls kinda puts the hurt on my brain.

So the solution to this problem: used golf balls.  My friend turned me on to this website, and I bought 3 dozen to try it out.  Worst case scenario, they suck and I’m out $60 for some shit balls.  Fortunately, it’s not the case.  I got a dozen Pro-V1x’s, Srixon Z-Star X and Taylormade TP Red for $59 shipped.  They’re “AAAA” quality, with “AAAAA” being the best.  Basically, some have a small scratch, some have a logo, some have a marking on it and some are nearly perfect.  I don’t need brand new Pro-Vs for $45 if I can get maybe twice hit balls for $18, especially if I lose four a round.  

So go check out the site and try a dozen.  Shipping was about $10 for my order.  It definitely seems worth it for anyone who loses a few a round but wants to play the expensive balls.  And even the cheaper ones are good deals too.

Oh, and my golf swing… played last weekend, it’s getting better.  The changes from the lesson I took a month ago are starting to stick and I’m noticing results.  My irons are consistently a club longer and the drives are beginning to show signs of life.  Maybe it’s a confidence thing, but I had an eagle in the last round to show for it and a few 300+ yarders… and those never hurt.

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted a golf course review, but I have been playing so here is my review of Galloping Hills, which I played this past weekend.  

Living in Hoboken, it’s hard to find a decent course nearby that isn’t too expensive.  Maybe someday I’ll have the connections to get on Liberty National or Bayonne, but until then, it’s all public courses for me.  Fortunately, there are a bunch of them, but my experience has been that you have to drive a bit to find a good one.  My expectations for Galloping Hills wasn’t high, as I had heard that the conditions weren’t good there.  Those fears were not realized, fortunately, as not only was the course in great shape, the layout was interesting and the greens were solid.  

The course measures a solid 6600 yards from the rear tees, and plays as a par 71.  The back 9 has some great 400+ yard par-4s that will challenge your distance and accuracy.  The greens are huge and often undulating and the course is packed with elevation changes.  

The front consists of a few short par-4s followed by some tough holes.  Steep elevation changes mark the character of the front nine, and there isn’t any back and forth.  Every hole is nicely different from one another.  Some are open, uphill, downhill, tight, flat… you name it.  It’s great to see a (relatively) urban area with such a large golf course.  You’re not in any danger of getting hit on the wrong fairway (with the possible exception of numbers 3, 7 & 16).

The character changes almost completely on the back-9.  Gone are the steep changes in elevation and instead the hills roll down into low-country, with large marshes, tall grass, a few lakes, and lots of deer. 

We tried to get a bit too close…

This course was taken over by a private golf management company last year.  From what I understand, the conditions have improved and they recently built a brand new practice facility with a huge putting green, chipping and sand practice areas and a full length driving range (a rarity in Northern NJ).  I’ve also heard that on tap for this off-season is a Taylormade club fitting center and a brand new clubhouse (they could use it).  If you’re a Union county resident, you owe it yourself to play this course.  If you’re out of county, it’s a bit pricey during peak hours ($58 + $16 for a cart).  Offpeak was more reasonable at $43, and I chose to walk.  It’s a bit hilly, but I made it and was no worse for the wear.  If it was any warmer that day, I would have paid for it.  They definitely need more drinking water out on the course.

Overall, I was pleased with this course and would definitely go back and play again.

Pros:
Great layout, good conditions, quick greens, great practice facility
Suffers from a bad rep so it was easy to walk on 

Cons:
Bunkers need significant raking, though efforts are going on throughout the course to improve maintenance (according to the pro there)
Water coolers on more holes are a necessity

Galloping Hills Golf Course, Kenilworth NJ
http://gallopinghillgolfcourse.com/ 

Well after a series of abysmal rounds (I barely broke 100 this past weekend), I finally decided to do something about my swing.  The results have been just awful, and no amount of self instruction will fix it, so I broke down and signed up for a lesson at a nearby golf course.

The first thing the pro said was that I’m taking the club back outside of my desired swing path.  In other words, I want my swing to be inside to out, and the easiest way to get there is to bring the club back inside of the ball… apparently, I wasn’t doing that and was lifting the club outside and into a bad position.  In order to put the club back into the slot, I had to shift my hips and things just went bad from there.

My hunch is that it was because a few years ago I messed up my back while snowboarding and to take some pressure off of my back, I changed my swing subconsciously.  The fix to my swing is to take the club back by turning rather than lifting.  Seems pretty simple, so we’ll see what happens out on the course.

In reality, the key to a good golf swing is simplicity.  You want your motions to be synchronized and your body to move as one piece.  It’s why there aren’t many swings like Jim Furyk’s out there.  It had never occurred to me that mine was approaching that territory, but I guess that’s the benefit of having a trained eye look at your swing.

In my quest for playing better golf and thus enjoying the game more, I’ve considered buying a dedicated GPS device for more accurate yardages.  I’ve seen them used in the past, and I think it’s a helpful tool, especially on courses that you don’t play all the time.  Unfortunately, these electronics are often pretty expensive, ranging from $200-$400.  Since I’m a sucker for technology and gadgets, I would have probably bought the most expensive one, the SkyCaddie SGX.  It’s a touchscreen unit, with what looks to be an impressive feature set.  However, I have an iPhone (in fact, just to confirm what I said in the previous sentence, I already purchased the iPhone 4… and it’s awesome!), and I knew there were some GPS apps out there.  I figured, what the heck, let’s give it a shot.  If it works, I’ve just saved $370, if not, I’m just back where I started.

The Golfshot GPS app (http://golfshot.com/) costs $30 through the iTunes store.  It gives distances to key areas on a hole (150, 125, 100 yds, sand traps, water, front and back edges of the green), allows you to pinpoint exact locations on a hole and check distances to and from that point, and keeps your score.  Also, you can keep score for your group, and it sends them an emailed scorecard after the round.  And don’t forget Facebook and Twitter integration so you can share your scores with your friends (though I would prefer not to recently).

I’ve used this app for 5 rounds now, and I’m very pleased with its performance.  The presentation of it is very impressive.  The maps are downloaded from Google or Bing and you can see aerial views of the hole:

A zoomed-in view:

Or just a statistical view (which I didn’t take a screenshot of).  If you’re wondering why these say 3.5 miles, it’s because I’m not actually on this course as of this writing (and I will probably never be because it’s Liberty National and costs a cool $500k to join).  In retrospect, a live action screenshot would have been more useful.  You can also pan the view around to see different zoomed parts of the hole.  If you put your finger on a point on the hole, the app will give you the distance to that point, useful for locating pins or other areas of interest.

The accuracy is pretty good as well.  If you believe the distances on your course, this app will probably be within a few yards.  If your course is in an area that doesn’t have high resolution satellite imagery, you may not get the best results, but if you live by a somewhat major city, you’ll be in good shape.  In the five rounds I’ve played (at five different courses), only one course seemed to be off the mark on distances.  

The app also keeps your score, and the statistics for your rounds.  It keeps # of putts, fairways hit, tee club, sand shots and penalty shots.  At the end of the round, you can see all of this on your scorecard, and there’s a stats section of the app that gives you a summary of the stats.  It doesn’t quite let you drill down in to all of the detail, but I hope that functionality is coming someday, because this could be a really powerful way to track your game and see what needs to be improved.

Looking at my game, everything needs to be improved.  In the five rounds I’ve had this app, I’ve basically played slightly better than bogey golf.  The stats tell the story why.  I’m missing tons of fairways (75%), lots of greens (61%), not getting up and down enough (only 10%) and hitting way too many putts (35).  On greens I hit in regulation, I’m averaging over 2.2 putts!  That’s not a good way to shoot low scores.  This app gives you the power to better understand your game and look for ways to improve.

As you may have noticed, a lot of what I write about on this blog are ways to improve your game by yourself and for not a lot of money.  A range-finder is a good place to start.  Knowing the right distance to the hole makes selecting a club easier and takes the guesswork out of it.  It also helps you gain a better understanding of how far you actually hit your clubs, which is really important.  The thing I wasn’t expecting was the statistics information, and this can help you identify problem areas and work on fixing them.  It’s clear to me I have to start working on my putting again, and I hadn’t realized that before using this app.  

This is a clear 5-star app for me.  Not only did it save me a ton of money compared to purchasing a standalone GPS, but it works great and has a lot of great features.  If you have an iPhone and want a GPS to help your game, you’d be crazy not to try this first.  

I’ve been working on my swing and my fundamentals over the past week, and I wanted to share what I’ve been able to accomplish.  You remember the video I posted a few weeks ago?  Well I took that and added a side-by-side view of what I’m trying to make my swing look like now.  I think the changes are starting to take hold, and I really like what I’m seeing.  Whether or not it produces results is a different story, but strong fundamentals and mechanics are good no matter how you look at it.  The above video is at a slightly different angle, but I think it’s close enough that you can get the picture.

1. My posture has improved.  I don’t look hunched over and my back is straighter overall.  As a result, the lie angle of the club is more upright, which was one of my goals from before.
2. I’m not sweeping the club back as much, in fact I’m keeping it close to on plane throughout the backswing.  When the club is half-way back, it’s nearly parallel and in line with my hands.  
   
   
3. As a result of the club going back on-plane and a slight shortening of my backswing, my club is nearly parallel with the target line.  Look at the difference at the top of my swing between both videos… It’s night and day.
   
   
4. On the way down, the club is on plane and in a great position half way down.   The club isn’t too far behind my hands and I should be able to square it up.  Because of the improvements from the beginning, I’m not wrapping the club around my body and taking it way too far inside-out.  
   
   
5. The follow through looks more balanced, though for what it’s worth, I’m on a flat surface.  My front lawn at my parents’ house is a bit slanted.  I’m not sure if that might be causing the difference.

Overall, I wanted to use this to illustrate a few things.  First, is that I accomplished this in 2 weeks.  I have yet to get out and play, but I think my mechanics look more solid and are more technically correct.  All I had was some prior knowledge about golf swings and a video camera.  Anyone can do this.  Second, I’m beginning to appreciate the importance of a video swing analysis.  I still have to go get mine professionally done because I think I’ve picked off the low-hanging fruit and I think professional instruction is essential to improve.  Being able to see what your swing looks like will help you figure out what you want it to look like and get how to get it there, and yes, you can do it by yourself (well bring a friend to hold the camera for you).

Finally, I don’t know exactly where that ball ended up that I hit on the range.  It looked pretty good on the video though… right?

While it’s still way early in the final round, Phil is looking strong, Tiger is kinda limping around and it looks like Dustin Johnson’s wheels are falling off.  So all bets are off and I’d have to say I’m re-evaluating my assessment from earlier today that neither Tiger or Phil  are going to win.  If I was a betting man, I’d take a bet that either Tiger or Phil will win.  Also, don’t forget to throw Ernie Els in that mix.

Of course, there is a good chance that I’ll still get it wrong.

What a great day ahead in the sports world.  A great World Cup match-up at 2:30 (Brazil and Ivory Coast) and then the final round of the US Open, and it’s shaping up to be quite a final round.  The other day, I said I don’t think Phil or Tiger will win.  After 3 days of play, Tiger is in 3rd place and Phil in 6th.  I’m keeping my original prediction, however.

Phil still misses too many fairways.  He’s only hit 64% through the first 3 rounds, and that’s about the field average.  I think you have to be above average to win.  Additionally, he’s 7 strokes back from the leader, Dustin Johnson.  It would take a very poor round from Johnson and a great one from Phil.  I’d give him a 20-1 shot.

Tiger is in much better shape.  After a 66 yesterday, he is in great position at -1 going into the final round.  His biggest problem is that he’s 5 back from the leader.  While he’s 2 shots better off than Phil, he has to shoot another 66 today and hope for a 70+ round from Johnson.  Maybe 10-1 on Tiger.  (I don’t know what the bookies have it at)

Regardless of what happens, it’s going to be exciting to watch.

pbh3:

Phil won’t win and neither will Tiger.  Phil is still too inaccurate off the tee and Tiger hasn’t found his game yet.  Perhaps he’s suffering from sex withdrawal.  What, no conspiracy theories about how he, “hurt his neck?”