Jaacob Bowden's Swing Man Golf Blog

Three Good Questions Annika Asks Herself When Between Golf Clubs

1)  How's Her Ball Striking?

If she's deciding between a 6-iron and a 7-iron and she's not feeling particularly sharp, she would go with the 6-iron.  When it's tournament time, she says it's not time to play for maximum distance.

2)  Where's the Trouble?

If she has to fly a hazard (water, bunker, etc) in front of the green, she picks the longer club because she doesn't want the added pressure of trying to create more carry with the shorter club.

3)  Where's the Flag?

Because of some of today's big greens which could mean a 3-club difference from front to back, she'll go with the longer one when the pin is back...and the shorter one when the pin is up.

Be Careful of Loft

by Jaacob Bowden

Often times when I'm out playing I'll have my playing partners ask me what iron I hit in to a green.  I'm sure you've probably asked or experienced this too.

I just want to remind you that when this happens, to not take it to heart too much when you hear what iron the person used.  The reason is that you never know what the loft of the club might be.  For example, Ernie Els says that he currently uses a 45 degree Callaway Tour Authentic X Prototype Pitching Wedge (PW), the PW that I use from 1iron Golf  is 47 degrees, and the PW that is offered by Maruman Golf is 42 degrees. 

You can bet that the Maruman wedge probably goes the farthest.  However, if you were to bend each of the three clubs to the same loft, they probably would all go about the same distance (since loft is the primary determinant of how far the ball goes).  This would hold true for nearly all manufacturers irons.

Why You Should Always Aim to the Fat Part of the Green

by Jaacob Bowden

While I know that there are times where you may feel like it's okay to fire at a pin, if you are at all interested in having the lowest possible scoring average over time, I think that you should ALWAYS have the discipline to aim to the fat part of the green (or the part of the green that gives you the most room for margin of error) with ANY full swing shot.  This includes Professionals!

How many times have you been sitting in front of the green in the fairway with a wedge in your hands and you end up making double bogey or worse by taking a chance at getting one close to the pin and end up in the bunker or someplace similar?  It's happened to me more than once.  A few weeks ago, I had a gap wedge in to a green, got a bit too greedy going for the pin, and just missed the green and went in to a horrible spot in the bunker.  Had I played a safer shot, I would've eliminated the bogey...likely making par and maybe even dropping in birdie.

The other day I was following Tiger on ShotLink and I saw that he was in the fairway in a similar situation with only about 110 yards to go to the pin.  I was expecting to see him nestled up close to the pin, but rather ShotLink showed that he ended up in the greenside bunker!  Oops!  He still managed to save par...but even Tiger's sand save percentage thus far this year is only 50%.  I assume he was shooting at the pin and missed like I did, causing himself a lot more heartache than necessary.  Had he just got it on the green, even far away, you can bet that he would make par more than 50% of the time.

Let's look at the numbers in order of the PGA Tour Leader, the PGA Tour Average Winner, and the PGA Tour Average:

Greens in Regulation    70.76%    72.41%    63.49%
Scrambling    64.82%    62.85%    56.03%
Scoring Average    69.12    67.14    71.04

Notice that to score low, the winners get the ball on the green at a higher percentage than the highest individual green in regulation percentage...and they get up and down when they miss the green at better than the Tour average.

When you aim to the middle of the green, not only will you hit more greens and ensure yourself of pars...but your misses will also be closer to the green, and thus your scrambling percentage will also improve because your short game shots will be much easier.  Plus, when you aim to the safest part of the green, you'll experience less stress over your approach shots, less stressful chips/pitches/bunkers shots, and less stressful lengthy par putts.   What can all this lead to?  Lower overall scores!

Give it a try.  Pars win money...even at the professional level.

Words of Wisdom: Camillo Villegas - Part II

"I get asked a lot how I'm able to hit it so far.  I tell people that whenever I need to give the ball a little extra hit, I try to get very relaxed and free.  To do this, I flex my muscles tight, then I relax so I can feel the difference.  Trying to swing harder can make you tense up and restrict the body and club's natural movement."  - Camillo Villegas

Words of Wisdom: Camillo Villegas - Part I

by Jaacob Bowden

Camillo Villegas' coach at the University of Florida, Buddy Alexander, always told Camillo, "When you start playing professional golf and move up the ranks, you're going to get shorter".  Camillo says that what his coach meant by that was that when scoring becomes such a big priority, you tend to swing more for control than for distance.

The driving distance stats (on the day that I'm checking them) between the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour seem to support this.  The Nationwide Tour average is 288.7 yards with 14 guys averaging over 300 yards...the PGA Tour average is down at 285.9 yards with only 9 guys averaging over 300 yards. 

For those of you that hit the ball over 260 yards (or even with enough distance to reach each green with an iron or hybrid from the tee boxes you like to play), you have enough distance to play good golf.  The other day I played a round of golf with ONLY my 3-SW and still shot 73. 

If you're at this level of distance and are truly interested in scoring lower, stop trying to hit it so far and quit worrying so much about distance.  It's important only to a certain extent.  In 2008, Corey Pavin had a lower scoring average (70.33 at 261.4 yards per drive) than Bubba Watson (70.79 at 315.1 yards per drive). 

Rather, focus more time on your pitching, chipping, and putting.  As long as you have "enough" distance relative to the tee boxes you play, you can still shoot par or better with a good short game.

Why You Might Want to Go with Heavier Clubs

by Jaacob Bowden

There's a lot of hype about how a lighter shaft can help you increase your swing speed...and to an extent that is true.  Going lighter can be great for seniors, women, people that don't swing that fast, those with injuries, or any golfer who wants a bit of extra speed for that matter.

The true test of how well it will work, however, comes when it's competition time - whether you are playing in a tournament, just for a few bucks with your buddies, etc.  Personally, I tried going down to the 65 gram shafts in the driver to get a bit more distance, and I hit it fine on the range.  But whenever I got in tournaments I would lose a little sense of where the club was in my swing.  This lead to some errant shots in times when I needed accurate ones.  Thinking back about all of my drivers, the one that had a 90 gram shaft performed best for me under the gun out of all the ones I tried between 65-90 grams because when I got nervous and lost some of my sense of feel, the extra weight in the club came in handy.

Tiger actually seemed to be much more accurate off the tee back when he first came out on the Tour and was using a heavier steel-shafted driver as well.  If I were him, I'd actually look in to going back to heavier.  Giving up 10 yards would be well worth it if he were in the fairway more often.

Having heavier clubs can also be useful in your irons and putters too.  Most touring professionals use steel in their iron shafts for the extra feel and control under pressure, and Retief Goosen won this year's Transitions Championship putting with the same putter with 40g extra weight that he used to win both his US Open Championships.  For me, I like to use the B3 Heavy Putter for the same reasons...more feel under pressure, and the putter stays steadier when I'm sitting over nerve-racking testy par putts.

So definitely feel free to try going lighter...but also make sure to see how well it performs when you need it to perform the most.  Going heavier may actually be the better option for you.

What's in the Bag - Anthony Kim

Are you curious to what is in a PGA Tour Professionals golf bag?  Check out what sticks the young Anthony Kim uses to win on the PGA Tour.

Watch the Video