Jaacob Bowden's Swing Man Golf Blog

Dan Shauger Intructors

Recently we have been asked for a list of Professionals that teach the Dan Shauger method.

Click here for the list of intructors.

How to Score Low

by Jaacob Bowden

I talk a lot about distance because that's certainly what interests a lot of people.  But in this blog, I'd like to go over what it takes to score low.

After compiling some key stats from over 30 PGA Tour winners, hitting the ball far or even that accurate is NOT a prerequisite to winning.  Rather, what is important is hitting the ball on the green, making putts, and getting up and down when you miss the green.  Let's look at the numbers in order of the PGA Tour Leader, the PGA Tour Average Winner, and the PGA Tour Average:

Driving Distance    315.2 yards    292 yards    287.4 yards
Driving Accuracy    80.42%    65.92%    72.74%
Greens in Regulation    70.76%    72.41%    63.49%
Scrambling    64.82%    62.85%    56.03%
Putts per GIR    1.72    1.67    1.79
Scoring Average    69.12    67.14    71.04

So even though you may not have the same distance as the Tour guys, if you want to beat your friends from the tee boxes that you play and take their money...focus on getting it on the green - even if you have to aim for the MIDDLE of the green on ALL shots!  The average Tour winner hits more GIR than the highest individual average, they scramble and putt really well, and yet they only hit the ball slightly more accurate and farther than their peers.

This is also actually one of the reasons why Tiger wins so much.  Although he sometimes hits his tee shots in some crazy places, he is always near the top in GIR, he scrambles well, and his putting inside 10' is great.  Whether he knows it or not, he does well the things that statistically matter most to scoring.

I hope this give you a better idea of what to focus on if you want to lower your handicap and shoot lower scores!

New Grooves Rule

Far Hills, N.J. – The United States Golf Association announced revisions to the Rules of Golf, placing new restrictions on the cross sectional area and edge sharpness of golf club grooves.

The revisions are designed to restore the challenge of playing shots to the green from the rough by reducing backspin on those shots. The initial focus of the new rules will be competitions involving highly skilled professional golfers and will have little impact on the play of most golfers.

The rules control the cross sectional area of grooves on all clubs, with the exception of drivers and putters, and limit groove edge sharpness on clubs with lofts equal to or greater than 25 degrees (generally a standard 5-iron and above)...read more.

Angle of Attack

by Jaacob Bowden

As I'm sure you can tell from my post, I like data.  :-)

To further help you hit the ball up to 20-30 yards farther, I'd like to go over your Angle of Attack in this blog.

Angle of Attack is a measure of the angle that your club comes in to the ball.  The average PGA Tour player hits down on the his drives at a -1.3 degree angle.  However, what statistical launch data these days is showing us is that given the amount of spin a your driver helps put on the ball, there is actually a 20-30 yard difference in a typical drive when you go from a -5 degree angle of attack to a +5 degree angle of attack.  This is actually one of the contributing reasons why professional long distance drivers hit farther is that they tee the ball up higher and make sure to catch the ball on the up swing.

But you don't have to have Tour or long driver swing speeds for this to hold true...the data actually holds true for other swing speeds as well!  So whether you swing 75 mph, 90 mph, 115 mph, etc...if you'd like to hit the ball a bit farther, make sure to catch the ball on the upswing (and of course still make good contact) instead of hitting down on it.

And thus the saying goes, hit it high and let it fly!

Golf Etiquette Part 4

by Joel Coe

Going to Your Ball

Now a days as courses are getting longer many require you to ride in a cart.  Even if they aren't required it seems carts are getting more popular every year.  But sometimes riding in a cart doesn't necessarily mean you can play faster than the walking 4-some.  Something you can do to speed up your play while riding in carts is drop your partner off at their ball and then drive over to your ball or vice versa.  This will allow both of you to be ready to hit your shots and then after you are done just drive back over to your partner.  It's much quicker than driving to one ball and then after driving to the next.

While in the Fairway

Probably the main etiquette problem in the fairway is replacing divots.  Although you may not be playing  in a tournament  you never know when there will be a tournament or outing where players have to play the ball down.  This is something people look over so much but when you think about it is such a simple thing to do.  Take the couple seconds and replace your divots, you never know when your ball lands in a divot so make sure to do this.

On the Green

The most important place to have good etiquette is on the green as it should be.  This is the place that makes and breaks scoring.  Having bad etiquette could affect one of your partners scoring or yours. 

The first thing you need to do when you get onto the green is to fix your ball mark if you hit a long enough shot in to create a ball mark into the green.  Also a rule of thumb is to not only fix your ball mark but one more.  This makes up for the players that aren't replacing their ball marks.

After you've done this you can now mark your ball.  When it comes to reading your putt you don't necessarily have to wait until your turn to start reading your putt.  Even if you go to professional tournaments you will see all of the players reading their putts simultaneously and then when the player farthest from the hole is getting ready to putt everyone is still.  This is a good idea for amateurs as well.  Reading your putt while your partners are reading theirs will speed up play and is good etiquette.  Just remember when one of your partners is about to make their putt be still and quiet.

The last thing is where do you stand on the green?  This will bother some and some players won't care where their players stand when they are putting.  But one place you shouldn't stand is in the line of the putt.  This means don't stand behind the player or on the other side of the hole.  Stand to either side of the player.

Remember to follow these rules of etiquette when you are on the course and yours and your partners golf game will thank you.

Custom Painted Golf Clubs

by Jaacob Bowden

As you can tell from a lot of my blogs, getting custom fit for your equipment can really make a big difference in your distance and overall performance.  In this post, I'd like to shift gears to a different - and yet related - equipment topic.

Recently, I made a trip out to Bakersfield (2 hours north east of Los Angeles), California to visit a friend of mine named Ric Moore.  Ric is a Class-A PGA Professional, a two-time SC PGA Clubfitter of the Year, has served as Director of Golf at various clubs, and is also a good tournament player with a number of professional wins under his belt.  If that wasn't enough, he's also a super nice guy!

Anyway, one thing that Ric does in his spare time is custom paint driver heads with whatever you want on them.  He made a couple Hawaiian theme heads for Rich Beem, he can put sports logos on the heads, and he even showed me one in his shop with a custom fin on it that literally looks like an old classic Cadillac.  Needless to say, his work is really cool.

  

If you'd like to check out some of his other designs, here is the link to his website where he has some pictures posted:

  

Ric Moore Designs

I hope you enjoy his designs.  Feel free to ask him through the contact form on his website about any kind of design you might want on your own driver head...and if you find yourself in the area, I highly recommend you visit him to have him evaluate your equipment.

Average PGA Tour Driver and Iron Distances

by Jaacob Bowden

I know a lot of people and golf announcers talk about how far the Tour players can hit the golf ball, but while they certainly do hit the ball far...it may not be as far as you would lead to be believed.  After all, it can be hard to tell from watching TV or reading about an event on a website if a player's shot was at high altitude, was with a tailwind, was downhill, etc.

As you know, with the advent of things like Shotlink and other statistical tracking tools, more and more data is now available about every possible thing you could want to know about your favorite Tour players.  Listed below are the PGA Tour average  "carry" distances in from over the last 4 seasons:

Driver    260 yards / 238 meters (Total Driving Distance - about 287.3 yards)
3-Wood    238 yards / 218 meters
5-Wood    223 yards / 204 meters
15-18* Rescue    218 yards / 199 meters
3-Iron    203 yards / 186 meters
4-Iron    189 yards / 173 meters
5-Iron    181 yards / 166 meters
6-Iron    169 yards / 155 meters
7-Iron    160 yards / 146 meters
8-Iron    149 yards / 136 meters
9-Iron    136 yards / 124 meters
PW        122 yards / 112 meters

Interesting, eh?

I hope this post gives you a more clear idea of the actual distances that Tour players hit under normal conditions.