This Monday will be the first tournament I will have competed in since the Canadian Open back in July. I'm quite excited to get back in the competitive side of the game... these past couple months have been all about preparation and I feel like I have done a great job in doing so. Earlier this week Barry and I visited the Northgate CC for a practice round. Other than the extremely windy day, we were able to do some good scouting and figure out some key strategies for getting through this somewhat tricky course. It only measures around 6,950 yrds but it's the tee shots that are the key to success. Driver is not always needed for this course but position is imperritive. Once you have found fairway and better yet and angle to some of these potential pin locations, there will be a great opportunity to score. Most holes after tee shot should place me no more than a nine iron into practically every hole. The par threes are all 190yrds and higher but the rest of the course seems quite scoreable. There is one issue that will come up throughout the round, however I have come to terms with it. The greens ... they are quite damaged, bumpy and slow. At least that was what they were like when we played the other day. It's unfortunate to want to test my game under the pressure and know that it is quite possible for a ball to run offline with the condition of the course. It's something we will all have to deal with and hopefully I have an edge because of early decision making on how to deal with the situation.
From time to time when this comes up on a golf course (and it has been lately in TX because the grass is dormant) when you miss a putt you look within to figure out what went wrong. Eventhough you know the putt bounced on it wway to the hole and went offline you will always try and do something different next time. There really isn't one special way to deal with bad greens. If you do know a solution please let me know...
Anyways, I'm going into this event knowing that the posibility is there for frustration to mount because of bouncing putts. I have told myself that I will continue with the same putting stroke and mental process through the round regardless of a miss... I will not try and change my stroke or anything because of a miss. Reason being I trust my stroke and feel that it is reliable for me. Hopefully this way I can just take what I'm given and give it my best shot at making the putt. Naturally they should just fall all day... and that's what I plan on doing... that's just contingency to stay the course and not try to overthink anything.
You can track progress through this link :
http://golf.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=golf&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adamsgolfprotourseries.com%2F
I hope it works, but it's at the adamsgolfprotourseries website.
I'll be keeping you up to date day on how wthe round went day to day. I plan on having good news each and everyday, like I said my preperation will have a chance to finally pay off.
JS
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Preparation
Just wanted to update everyone on what's going on down here. I have been continuing my practice schedule and things have been progressing on schedule. This week I will enter into the Northgate CC Tight Lies Tour event it begins March 2-4, it's a 54 hole event and I hope to have this event help me with preparation for the Canadian Tour Q School Mar. 16. I feel like all is going well, my head is in the right place and I feel confident that my game is ready for the stress of Q School. I have been searching for a driver that will give me a little more forgiveness and have found the Titleist 909 D3 ... I was fitted the other day by a club fitter I have met down here who's working out of the Golfsmyth I use for equipment work. I hope that this driver arrives before the Q School so I can get a feel for if and figure out if I can trust it for the event. The D3 feels extremely solid and with a larger face compared to my older 983 E model I will get a little more help on miss hits. Driver aside my main focus is being in the right mind frame to go through the Q School as smoothly as possible.
Sounds easy enough.
JS
Sounds easy enough.
JS
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Busy Week
I started this week off in the search of a coach to help move me into the next level of my game. Within that search, it didn't take long for me to learn a few quick things about myself as a professional. During my practice sessions I have really been focusing on something I don't think I cared enough about ... consistency. Lately I have been working on short game execution which will keep me consistently better around the greens. Barry has been a big help on that, working on shots around the green that are just no brainers. This has made it progressively less stressful when making those shots I have been having trouble with. To make this consistency happen I am working on eliminating most of my moving parts during my short game shots. Eliminating my lower half and using my shoulders and chest to swing through the ball at impact. Stress will come up in a round but if i can reduce the potential stressful occurrences during the round I know I will on average have better results.
I have always used a little more of my arms to swing through the ball at impact which is fine, it has been working for me up to now... It's just a matter of understanding how your swing works and what are your tendencies. Tuesday I met with a potential coach who had played on the PGA Tour in the 90's. Carl Cooper seemed like he could be a great fit as he would be able to give me an insiders view on how I can take my game to the tour. As we spoke on the range I let him know what I was looking for... number 1, it's a month away from my chance at Q school and I don't want to be making any swing changes. Two , Three whatever... you see where this is going. By the fourth hole I hit my tee shot and Carl lets me know that to be better I need to change my swing. Long story short I tried for the entire round to make this golf swing work and all it did was help me lose not only a dozen golf balls in the woods but i lost all confidence in what I had been working on up till then. It wasn't a good day.
Carl and I will not be working together.
That was Tuesday...
Another guy I've been playing with is Michael Borrote from London, England. He's a class A PGA professional and plays some events on the Tight Lies Tour. I played with him on Wednesday and later went to the range. He had a suggestion for my swing which would help me be more consistent. The best part was, it wasn't a big change at all. I squared myself up to the target and weakened my grip (my grip has always been fairly strong*). From there I was able to swing through my swing a lot more, he found I was holding my shots off to keep them online.
A good 500 balls on the range and short game work we made it to today. Wind was blowing this weekend and today was at least 35 mph... it was strong enough that a large cypress was knocked over beside the green we were on. Either way I played like their was no wind out there... I hit 12 greens, 2 or 3 may have been missed on the fringe. Had 27 putts (missed two 5 footers, two 3 putts) and shot a 2 under 70. I was 4 under on the back nine, which we played first. I only had to make 3 tough up and downs, two were from sand... but i did, and they were basically tap ins. It was a great day and my playing partner even said he was inspired to practice harder. He was 79 and played well... the wind was tough. Today was incredible just how tough the course was playing with the wind but I just stuck with what I had been practicing and I was very pleased to play my best round in the toughest conditions yet.
I look forward to this week, I will be working really hard on my short game and making everything more and more automatic. I have to say I'm also really looking forward to a day where the wind just sits still and I can see what I can do out here without mother nature in the way.
* A strong grip doesn't mean you grip the club harder, it's a position where if you grip the club strong you are more likely to hit the ball to the left (if you're a right hander). The reason is because the grip makes the club head close a bit at impact. It's completely the opposite for a weak grip where the ball will move right because the club head is open at impact. I weakened my grip so that I would be coming through the impact zone with a square club head more often.
Stay tuned, things are looking good.
JS
I have always used a little more of my arms to swing through the ball at impact which is fine, it has been working for me up to now... It's just a matter of understanding how your swing works and what are your tendencies. Tuesday I met with a potential coach who had played on the PGA Tour in the 90's. Carl Cooper seemed like he could be a great fit as he would be able to give me an insiders view on how I can take my game to the tour. As we spoke on the range I let him know what I was looking for... number 1, it's a month away from my chance at Q school and I don't want to be making any swing changes. Two , Three whatever... you see where this is going. By the fourth hole I hit my tee shot and Carl lets me know that to be better I need to change my swing. Long story short I tried for the entire round to make this golf swing work and all it did was help me lose not only a dozen golf balls in the woods but i lost all confidence in what I had been working on up till then. It wasn't a good day.
Carl and I will not be working together.
That was Tuesday...
Another guy I've been playing with is Michael Borrote from London, England. He's a class A PGA professional and plays some events on the Tight Lies Tour. I played with him on Wednesday and later went to the range. He had a suggestion for my swing which would help me be more consistent. The best part was, it wasn't a big change at all. I squared myself up to the target and weakened my grip (my grip has always been fairly strong*). From there I was able to swing through my swing a lot more, he found I was holding my shots off to keep them online.
A good 500 balls on the range and short game work we made it to today. Wind was blowing this weekend and today was at least 35 mph... it was strong enough that a large cypress was knocked over beside the green we were on. Either way I played like their was no wind out there... I hit 12 greens, 2 or 3 may have been missed on the fringe. Had 27 putts (missed two 5 footers, two 3 putts) and shot a 2 under 70. I was 4 under on the back nine, which we played first. I only had to make 3 tough up and downs, two were from sand... but i did, and they were basically tap ins. It was a great day and my playing partner even said he was inspired to practice harder. He was 79 and played well... the wind was tough. Today was incredible just how tough the course was playing with the wind but I just stuck with what I had been practicing and I was very pleased to play my best round in the toughest conditions yet.
I look forward to this week, I will be working really hard on my short game and making everything more and more automatic. I have to say I'm also really looking forward to a day where the wind just sits still and I can see what I can do out here without mother nature in the way.
* A strong grip doesn't mean you grip the club harder, it's a position where if you grip the club strong you are more likely to hit the ball to the left (if you're a right hander). The reason is because the grip makes the club head close a bit at impact. It's completely the opposite for a weak grip where the ball will move right because the club head is open at impact. I weakened my grip so that I would be coming through the impact zone with a square club head more often.
Stay tuned, things are looking good.
JS
Monday, February 2, 2009
Presentation @ Woodensticks
Here is the video from the evening at Woodensticks. Many were unable to attend that evening due to weather, fortunately I was able to record it for later viewing. There are five parts on youtube and the tab if you're looking for it is simply Jacob Scriven.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
New Month, Same Vision
Well at the start of this week I had the feeling that I was turning the tide and moving my game back to where it was in July. Perhaps I was asking a little too much when I thought I might be seeing some 60's later in the week. As I explained earlier the bermuda grass has been an issue on gaining confidence with shots around the green and putting. This week our golf course fertilized the greens which didn't allow them to cut, although they are dormant they still cut to keep them flat and smooth. Since they didn't cut this entire week it put doubt in the mind when putts would be pulled by the grain* left or right after making a great stroke. The objective for this week has certainly been staying confident and trust what I'm doing is right.
My practice has been going well and have been working on making even better contact and keeping my lower body as still as possible on shots around the green. This will increase my consistency and when I get to courses that have a fuller (almost easier) rough this practice will be extreemly helpful. I say easier because at the moment any time I miss a green I'm left with the toughest shots in golf. The idea is that with a fuller, more consistent rough the ball has a greater chance of sitting up off the ground allowing the ball to be hit a little easier. Unlike here in Texas the ball is sitting on the soil almost 90% of the time. I've also turned to some drills, Barry (my practice partner) has introduced a drill that works on putting and shots around the green. It takes about 2 hours to go through it completly but seems like it will really help with club selection around the green. This has really helped my putting and I've found my putting stroke getting extreemly smooth. This has helped with staying confident on the greens, with that grain it seems only the best of putts will fall. I've also found my ball striking to be getting increasinly better. I think it's because of the increased short game work and focus on solid contact around the green.
New into my schedule has been the addition of fitness in the morning. I joined the Bally's Gym here in Houston and it is a great facility to continue my fitness program. I have been out there by 7am and to the golf course by 10. This is the first time I have been able to include a productive fitness program with my increased time on practice. I'm hoping this will be my recipe for success. The work that's been going into my game these days can only help me reach new heights. One the perks to the early morning workout is the Bally's Gym I attend has a wonderful steam room to loosen up before swinging the club all day.
I'm looking at one month until Qschool comes and of course I feel like I'm on the right track. Keep a look out for video from practice sessions and playing. I want to use that for getting a better visual picture of game in general, hoping it will help in improving my game.
JS
* Grain, for the non golfer is the direction in which the grass grows. Usually on greens back home in Canada the grass on putting surfaces are bentgrass. When cut, there is really no grain grain affect the putt. Here in Texas and the south the grass is bermuda grass which is a weedy type of grass and grows in all sorts of directions. This makes it difficult to rewad and keep putts online. As the grass gets longer on the green, the grain will increase as well.
My practice has been going well and have been working on making even better contact and keeping my lower body as still as possible on shots around the green. This will increase my consistency and when I get to courses that have a fuller (almost easier) rough this practice will be extreemly helpful. I say easier because at the moment any time I miss a green I'm left with the toughest shots in golf. The idea is that with a fuller, more consistent rough the ball has a greater chance of sitting up off the ground allowing the ball to be hit a little easier. Unlike here in Texas the ball is sitting on the soil almost 90% of the time. I've also turned to some drills, Barry (my practice partner) has introduced a drill that works on putting and shots around the green. It takes about 2 hours to go through it completly but seems like it will really help with club selection around the green. This has really helped my putting and I've found my putting stroke getting extreemly smooth. This has helped with staying confident on the greens, with that grain it seems only the best of putts will fall. I've also found my ball striking to be getting increasinly better. I think it's because of the increased short game work and focus on solid contact around the green.
New into my schedule has been the addition of fitness in the morning. I joined the Bally's Gym here in Houston and it is a great facility to continue my fitness program. I have been out there by 7am and to the golf course by 10. This is the first time I have been able to include a productive fitness program with my increased time on practice. I'm hoping this will be my recipe for success. The work that's been going into my game these days can only help me reach new heights. One the perks to the early morning workout is the Bally's Gym I attend has a wonderful steam room to loosen up before swinging the club all day.
I'm looking at one month until Qschool comes and of course I feel like I'm on the right track. Keep a look out for video from practice sessions and playing. I want to use that for getting a better visual picture of game in general, hoping it will help in improving my game.
JS
* Grain, for the non golfer is the direction in which the grass grows. Usually on greens back home in Canada the grass on putting surfaces are bentgrass. When cut, there is really no grain grain affect the putt. Here in Texas and the south the grass is bermuda grass which is a weedy type of grass and grows in all sorts of directions. This makes it difficult to rewad and keep putts online. As the grass gets longer on the green, the grain will increase as well.
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