Opinion & Analysis

5 things I wish I could tell every good new golfer

Published

2 years ago

Jul 18, 2022

I’m only 33, but in golf years I’m over the hill. That sounds like bad news, but I’m enjoying it.

As much as I miss the tournaments of my junior and college golf days, I’m loving the social golf I get to play with people my age who are newer to the game. I’m endlessly impressed at how good many of them have gotten in a very short period of time!

It reminds me of when I got into golf in middle school. It seemed like I was noticeably better with every month that went by. I was so excited about how good I could get, but as any good golfer knows, the better you get the harder it is to get better.

Over the course of any round, there are only so many opportunities to offer anything more than pleasantries to your struggling playing partners (at least without being that guy). But I’ve found a few things I’ve offered have consistently resonated.

Before I move into the list, here’s a disclaimer. I’m not an instructor; I’m not a mental coach; I don’t pretend to be. That’s serious work that demands serious study.

But…I do think there’s plenty of room for us over-the-hill golfers to share some of things we learned from our coaches and from our golf experiences that can help fast-improving newbies enjoy their journey and make the most of their time on the course.

Please share your best tips in the comments!

#1: Breaking 80 Is A Big Deal

Breaking 80 is a benchmark for a lot of golfers. That’s a shame because it’s really hard to do.

Look down the leaderboard in many PGA Tour events, and you’re going to find somebody who shot in the 80s. These are guys who can flirt with 59, and they still shoot in the 80s occasionally.

So, if your low round is 75 and you feel like you need to break 80 to “play well,” you’re going to be disappointed after almost every round. That’s a bad deal for a 5-hour investment of your time.

Think of it this way. If you shoot 80, you probably made at least 9 pars. That means you played high-quality golf at least 50 percent of the time!

#2: Remember Your Highlight Reel

When you watch a PGA Tour event on TV, you’re going to see mostly great shots because the coverage is focused on the players that are having one of the best weeks of their season. When you do see a bad shot, it’s either a blip or a shot that was so bad it was newsworthy.

After your round, take some time to remember your highlight reel. Don’t skip over the big drive you hit, the iron shot you stuck close, or your awesome up-and-down.

And don’t stop there. Ask yourself, “What was different on that shot?” You might get a quick answer. That’s great. If not, let it simmer. It will come to you.

The trick is figuring out what worked on those special shots so you can do it again. You need a top-3 or top-5 list of your own favorite tips that you can tap into when things go south (and they will).

#3: Take Range Sessions With A Grain Of Salt

It’s easy to live and die with your last range session. But as you know by now, a good range session does not guarantee a good round, and vice versa.

The range is a place for three things:

Getting your body ready for golf
Settling on a shot shape and/or swing thought for the day
Working on something new

Nos. 1 and 2 are acceptable before a round. No. 3 is best served for after the round or a standalone range session.

The golf course is going to expose the flaws in your game. Period. Embrace all the feedback from all 18 holes. Know that it’s going to make you better. And if you can, take that feedback to your next practice session where you can do something with it.

If you’re expecting a range session before a round to “fix” anything, you’re in for a long day.

Yes, you’re going to be lost from time to time, and that’s OK. Remember what you learned from your highlight reel and use those thoughts to get you through tough times. Those thoughts worked before, so they can work again.

Just don’t rely on anything new to work right away on the course like it does on the range. It does happen, but not often.

#4: Hit All The Shots

So many golfers I play with can only move the ball one direction. They fade, but they don’t draw. They draw, but they don’t fade. You can score that way, but you’ll only see improvement up to a certain point…especially if you’re a fader.

If you’re a fader, you absolutely need to learn how to draw the ball. If you’re a drawer, you need to learn how to fade the ball.

Lessons can help here, but if you’re averse, use your range sessions to experiment. Most golfers have played ping pong or tennis. They can curve the ball without any trouble. So why not golf? I think it comes down to the fact that it’s more acceptable to lose a point in ping pong or tennis than it is to make a triple bogey.

When you’re learning how to shape the ball, start BIG. Hit a 50-yard hook or slice. Try to hit five hooks in a row without double-crossing one. Once you’ve got that down, try alternating hooks and slices…and eventually baby draws and baby fades.

Over time, you’ll understand how to hit these shots without thinking too much about them, and you’re going to need them if you want to break par someday.

Know that you’re not going to screw up your swing learning new shots. If anything, your swing is going to get better because it’s going to have to get more neutral to curve it both ways.

#5 Stop Keeping Score (For A Time)

When I was playing a lot of tournament golf in the 2000s, Dr. Bob Rotella was the mental game guru and he preached “one shot at a time” and “adding up the score at the end.” That’s incredible advice, but if you’re finding it hard to do it might be simpler to just stop keeping score entirely.

As an over-the-hill golfer, I’m never going to be as good as I once was. But I can be as good once as I ever was. That’s from a Toby Keith song, but it applies to golf.

All great golfers plan every shot they hit before they hit it. And then they try to execute that shot exactly the way they planned. Few shots are going to be perfect, but if you don’t know what shot you’re trying to hit you’re almost certainly not going to be able to hit it.

The course is the best place to learn what works, but to learn we have to experiment. That’s why I like skipping the scorecard… at least for a round or two.

Without the pressure of the pencil, you’ll be free to try things you might not have tried before. Like hitting a three-quarter 9 iron instead of muscling a wedge. Or taking a more direct line on a dogleg that could be risky but could pay off if you’re swinging well.

A Final Thought For Every Golfer

Whether you’re new or have been playing golf a long time, it’s easy to get caught up in birdies and bogeys. But as we all know, the scorecard can lie. After all, how many times have you hit two great shots… and made a double. Or two bad shots… and made a birdie.

It’s fairer to ourselves to think of golf as a game of great shots, acceptable shots, and misfires. If you can approach each shot as its own individual challenge, then you’ll know when you did your best and when you didn’t.

Take what you can from the good ones and the bad ones. And if you do this only half the time during each round, you’ll be amazed at how consistent your scores can become, and you’ll probably shoot a few super-low rounds, too.

And more importantly, you’ll probably enjoy the game more.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans betting preview

Published

1 day ago

Apr 22, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.

TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.

Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.

However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.

Past Winners at TPC Louisiana

2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)

2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks

Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)

Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.

This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.

McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.

Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)

Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.

Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.

Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)

Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.

NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 LIV Adelaide betting preview: Cam Smith ready for big week down under

Published

1 day ago

Apr 22, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

After having four of the top twelve players on the leaderboard at The Masters, LIV Golf is set for their fifth event of the season: LIV Adelaide.

For both LIV fans and golf fans in Australia, LIV Adelaide is one of the most anticipated events of the year. With 35,000 people expected to attend each day of the tournament, the Grange Golf Club will be crawling with fans who are passionate about the sport of golf. The 12th hole, better known as “the watering hole”, is sure to have the rowdiest of the fans cheering after a long day of drinking some Leishman Lager.

The Grange Golf Club is a par-72 that measures 6,946 yards. The course features minimal resistance, as golfers went extremely low last season. In 2023, Talor Gooch shot consecutive rounds of 62 on Thursday and Friday, giving himself a gigantic cushion heading into championship Sunday. Things got tight for a while, but in the end, the Oklahoma State product was able to hold off The Crushers’ Anirban Lahiri for a three-shot victory.

The Four Aces won the team competition with the Range Goats finishing second.

*All Images Courtesy of LIV Golf*

Past Winners at LIV Adelaide

2023: Talor Gooch (-19)

Stat Leaders Through LIV Miami

Green in Regulation

Richard Bland
Jon Rahm
Paul Casey

Fairways Hit

Abraham Ancer
Graeme McDowell
Henrik Stenson

Driving Distance

Bryson DeChambeau
Joaquin Niemann
Dean Burmester

Putting

Cameron Smith
Louis Oosthuizen
Matt Jones

2024 LIV Adelaide Picks

Cameron Smith +1400 (DraftKings)

When I pulled up the odds for LIV Adelaide, I was more than a little surprised to see multiple golfers listed ahead of Cameron Smith on the betting board. A few starts ago, Cam finished runner-up at LIV Hong Kong, which is a golf course that absolutely suits his eye. Augusta National in another course that Smith could roll out of bed and finish in the top-ten at, and he did so two weeks ago at The Masters, finishing T6.

At Augusta, he gained strokes on the field on approach, off the tee (slightly), and of course, around the green and putting. Smith able to get in the mix at a major championship despite coming into the week feeling under the weather tells me that his game is once again rounding into form.

The Grange Golf Club is another course that undoubtedly suits the Australian. Smith is obviously incredibly comfortable playing in front of the Aussie faithful and has won three Australian PGA Championship’s. The course is very short and will allow Smith to play conservative off the tee, mitigating his most glaring weakness. With birdies available all over the golf course, there’s a chance the event turns into a putting contest, and there’s no one on the planet I’d rather have in one of those than Cam Smith.

Louis Oosthuizen +2200 (DraftKings)

Louis Oosthuizen has simply been one of the best players on LIV in the 2024 seas0n. The South African has finished in the top-10 on the LIV leaderboard in three of his five starts, with his best coming in Jeddah, where he finished T2. Perhaps more impressively, Oosthuizen finished T7 at LIV Miami, which took place at Doral’s “Blue Monster”, an absolutely massive golf course. Given that Louis is on the shorter side in terms of distance off the tee, his ability to play well in Miami shows how dialed he is with the irons this season.

In addition to the LIV finishes, Oosthuizen won back-to-back starts on the DP World Tour in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mauritus Open. He also finished runner-up at the end of February in the International Series Oman. The 41-year-old has been one of the most consistent performers of 2024, regardless of tour.

For the season, Louis ranks 4th on LIV in birdies made, T9 in fairways hit and first in putting. He ranks 32nd in driving distance, but that won’t be an issue at this short course. Last season, he finished T11 at the event, but was in decent position going into the final round but fell back after shooting 70 while the rest of the field went low. This season, Oosthuizen comes into the event in peak form, and the course should be a perfect fit for his smooth swing and hot putter this week.

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Opinion & Analysis

The Wedge Guy: What really makes a wedge work? Part 1

Published

5 days ago

Apr 18, 2024

Terry Koehler

Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.

Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.

But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.

To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.

Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.

If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.

In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.

Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.

While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.

So, what about grooves and face texture?

Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.

Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.

But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?

The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.

So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.

And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.

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