We all like to play without waiting on the group in front of us. No one thinks of themselves as a slow player, but obviously they exist, and clog play on many courses. I doubt that anyone reading this is a snail, but we’ve all played with someone that can make a round of golf take over 6 hours. If you know someone that fits into this category, you can give them tips from this article, or refer them to it saying how much it speeded up your game (wink, wink), so they feel you’re in it together.
Some things to keep in mind to make sure you,re playing “ready golf”:
In the cart as you approach your ball; think about what club you may need.
If two players are in the same cart, park in between your balls, and each of you should take 3 clubs the you think you’ll need, and the one above and below it.
When it’s your turn, walk up to the ball, take 1 practice swing if you like, and hit the ball. Do not stand there and waggle or grind over the ball.
When putting, study your putt while the other golfers are taking their shots. Again, if you like to take a practice putt, do so, but limit it to one. If this is anything other than a professional golf tournament, there is no reason to slow play over a putt.
Do not take phone calls during a round of golf. If you do, tell the other players to go ahead, and do not hold up the game while you talk. If you’re simply playing for fun, skip the hole while you talk.
The idea behind ready golf, is to be ready for your shot when it is your turn, hit it, and move on.
As a group, keep moving. If you’re talking, do so while you walk. Don’t stand around the tee box or green and socialize after your shots. Keep moving.
If the course is full, you should always be able to see the group in front of you. If you have lost sight of them, your group is playing slowly, and it is your responsibility to let the golfers behind you play through, and then keep up with them.
The average foursome should be able to play a hole in 15 minutes, 9 holes in 2 ¼ hours, and 18 holes in 4 ½ hours. If your group isn’t keeping up to that pace of play, you need to speed things up.
We all know golf is a mental game. Speed of play is an aspect of this ability to remain focused on the game at hand and be prepared for that next shot. Ready golf is also a habit, once you know how to maintain your concentration, and play efficently anything else feels sloppy.
Beginners normally like to simply walk up to a putt and attempt to hit it in. It is more efficient to have a short pre-shot routine for your putts. There are several different ways to approach this, the important thing, if you are an amateur, is to keep it short.
As you walk up to the green, look at the way the green slopes, and imagine what you think is the natural break in the green. If you envision how water would flow downhill on the green, that can make it more clear. A simple approach is to stand behind the ball, looking towards your target. Picture in your mind how much you think the ball will break as it rolls towards the hole.
Now stand over your ball. Look at your ball, then the hole, and back to your ball. Picture the ball going in the hole as you pull your putter back, and strike the ball. Now watch the ball, hopefully it went in, but if it did not, look at where it stopped and how it moved in relation to the hole. If you are on a practice green, hit another ball until it goes in the hole.
And always hit the ball in the hole, no gimmies. Putting represents over 40% of the strokes you will make during your round, so it is worthwhile to have a consistent, short, and effective pre-shot routine for your short game. It will definitely pay off.
What are you trying to achieve when you go to practice? Is it to lower your score, or simply burn off steam? If it is to burn off steam, by all means go out and whack your driver, but if it is to lower your score, it requires more.
The three most important clubs in your bag are your putter, your driver, and your chipper, in that order. An average of 43 percent of the strokes you make in a game of golf will be putts. The next highest is your woods, at 25 percent, followed by 13 percent chipping, 10 percent irons, and 5 percent hazard shots.
If you go to a professional golf tournament, the touring pros warm up on the driving range with their wedges, and progress through a few of their clubs before they hit their driver. And they ALL spend time on the putting green.
You will also notice the pros are not making changes to their swing on the day of a tournament, they are simply practicing, and getting warmed up. On the day of a tournament, they need to be playing without thinking about it.
So when you go to practice, ask yourself, “What is the goal?”
Here are some of the images from the wonderful Noblesville Education Foundation event that was held at the club last week. Thank you to everyone who participated!
Of course they mean a major golf tournament, and we would love to host one! Five is the highest score, one the lowest. They rated the course in five areas:
Test of Golf, would the pros like it?
Location, is it near a city, hotels, and are the greens bent grass?
On-site Logistics, meaning how well would the site handle spectators and all the things that come with a big tournament.
Blue Blazer Quotient, from their website “The USGA and PGA prefer courses with tradition and lineage. Designed by AW Tillinghast in 1935, Bethpage—no surprise—is a 5; John Daly’s Lions Den Golf Course in Dardenelle, Ark., is a 1.”
Buzz Factor, would people talk about the event simply because of the site?
We scored a four in the first two categories, Test of Golf, and Location. Makes sense, the tour players could play from the tips and have an enjoyable yet challenging round of golf. We’re only 20 minutes from the north side of Indianapolis, and about an hour from the airport, so hotels and transportation are convenient.
Category three, and four we scored a lowly two, one respectively. On-site logistics would take some planning, but with the help of our local community could no doubt be orchestrated to come off without a hitch. The Blue Blazer Quotient, well they obviously don’t know much about the course’s architect Ron Kern. Kern is a second generation golf course architect. Not only is his father a golf course architect (Gary Kern), but Kern also grew up in the shadow of Bill Diddel. Bill was one of the founders and a Charter Member of the American Society Of Golf Course Architects and designed over 300 golf courses in Indiana. Kern has been overheard reminiscing about staking golf courses with Diddel as a small boy. Read about:
Ron Kern at http://www.ronkerngolfarch.com/
Gary Kern at http://www.garykern.com/
Bill Diddel at http://www.billdiddel.com/
Buzz Factor, we scored a middle of the road three. It has been our experience that people love the course, the name, the logo, and can you imagine the jokes on the Golf Channel, ESPN, or the local radio talk shows about Tiger spending time in Purgatory?
You can read the whole article at http://www.linksmagazine.com/golf_courses/features/public_golf_courses_major_championships/purgatory-us-open-pga/
I’ve been talking on and off about HDR (high dynamic range) photography on this blog, but someone asked me about it last night, so I thought it was worth revisiting. The first nine images in this gallery are the ones used to make the two final images in the gallery.
This photo was taken just after sunrise looking across the fairway towards the 16th green.
There are several ways to create an HDR image like this, but what I do is, put my camera on a tripod, attach a cable release, so my pushing down on the shutter release button doesn’t cause any camera shake, and I program my camera to take a series of images, ranging from being under exposed by 4 f-stops to being over exposed by 4 f-stops. So this make a total of nine exposures, -4, -3, -2, -1, even or accurate exposure, +1, +2, +3, +4.
On this particular occasion, I had my f-stop set at 22, which is the highest it will go, and that’s how I get some much in focus, and achieve that cool star effect from the sun. I put my camera on it’s lowest native ISO setting, which for me is 200, and I press the shutter release cable and count off nine exposures.
When I get back to the office with my memory cards, I import them into Adobe’s Camera Raw, and then use Nik’s HDR Efex Pro to merge the nine images into one image. I love this program as it gives you numerous options on how the merged image will be rendered.
This program opens the image in Photoshop, and that image was the second image you see in this gallery. I did some basic touch up, then applied another filter, Nik’s Tonal Contrast, which I absolutely love for HDR and landscape photography, and I was finished.
The final product in actually on display at the Indiana State Fair in the photography exhibit.
On the subject of the Indiana State Fair, our hearts and prayers go out to all the families that were impacted by the tragic accident that took place during the storm.
We were pleased to host the Purgatory Junior Golf Championship last Friday. Thank you to everyone who participated, the children, the parents, and instructors. It was a lovely day, a fun and healthy competitive environment, followed by awards, and pizza. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!
