Demon Deacon

They make Harry Potter calculators?

you going to be on the bag?

Cool, it really is worth the trip out to see a string bean bomb it.
50/50. Caddying all next week and then leaving again in 10 days to caddie in another amateur golf tournament might not be the best life/wife decision. I'd like to and will see if I can make it happen though.

I'm just about to leave for Houston. I won't have my computer so posting many updates from the iPad might be tough. If you want to follow me on Twitter I'll probably live update a tad if possible and post a few pics of the course tomorrow during our practice round.

@ScottFawcett

He goes at 12 on Monday and 7:20 on Tuesday. I hate match play, but I really think he's going to ship---this one.

Well the yardage book sucks so I got caught up making a good one that I forgot to take any pictures. Course is great. Playing pretty long with decent uniform rough. Will hit it great and looks solid.

At the pre tourney dinner they acknowledge all players who are playing in their second or more US Junior....Will was the only one to get this medal. Pretty awesome.

https://mobile.twitter.com/scottfawc...763969/photo/1

Scott pretty cool stuff. THanks for the updates.

That being said, you were somewhat critical of Will's putting...but putting is a pretty weak point of most kids that ages game right? '


Where would you surmise him in the world in overall driving? (Men boys women etc)....top 500...top 100....top 20?

thanks!

I'm honestly not sure if it is or isn't a weakness for,kids, relative to other areas. Meaning most parts kind of mature in *roughly* the same fashion. He is world class in all other phases of the game and is a terrible putter. He's not a bad putter due to lack of skill, it's from being yippie which is why I find it a tad concerning.

He did switch to the claw and that has helped tremendously for sure. I truly think that he simply needs a little mass to help with body control and awareness.

As for where do I rank him driving, tough question because of sample size....I know, I know we aren't opening that can of worms here. Lol!

what I will say is the way he drove it the 6 rounds (2 practice and 4 tournament) at the State Am was 100% as good as I've seen the ball be hit. Long as ****, straight as ****, and full command of working it both ways.

When you drive it as well as he does there simply isn't much left, I don't care what the course looks like. I'm taking these practice and qualifying rounds to really refine his degrees of miss with the short irons so I can maybe get a tad more aggressive with his lines in the event. That said I will be trying to have him hit as many greens as possible again this week to eliminate chipping which invariably leaves a ton of 6 foot par putts.

Throw in a little strategy based on how the match stands and I really like our chances unless he just happens to run into a buzz saw which is always a concern in match play.

In before "holy hex" and flameout to a MC and no match play!

Good start, Ship's horse is tied for 2nd at -3 thru 12 holes.

Kid can play

thanks for the detailed response ST.

Who taught him how to swing? Self Taught?? You? some local pro? Combo?

How do you mean refine his degrees of miss? I.e. You tell him i want you to hit it 155 at that pine tree but do not let it get right of Pine tree that is 8 yards right of that?

Obviously you proved your worth on the bag cuz he shipped the event you caddied for him in, but (i don't mean this offensive to you or him) sometimes kids or golfers (sergio/wie/watson) can be punks and want to take it out on the caddy, how do you balance just letting him do him and give him a yardage and really showing him how to play the mental game. If you were say a scratch golfer who never played on tour...how much more would you watch what you say/advise him.


Not trying to be confrontational, but i wonder how much your pedigree buys you when dealing with a kid who can hit it better than you ever could when you tell him that from 150 he needs to aim 20 ft off the pin.

Finished T17 at -1 with a double on a par 5.

Show me one tour caddy who is better than his player. Caddying is an art.

BO

i KNOW that. but how often are caddies responsible for "refining teh degrees of miss" for a player.

So it was you that hexed us!
He works with david price at our home course. He's a bit of an old school teacher, but Will really doesn't need much. It is a pretty natural action overall.

by degree of miss I mean degrees offline. The Top 40 is strokes gained driving has a mean degree miss of 3.3 degrees offline. Irons, especially irons are less than that. So what i mean by refine his degrees offline is that I plotted every shot at the state am with regards to the target I gave him, NOT the pin. Say I want him to hit is 6 feet left and 12 feet long and he hits it there exactly I would plot that as a 0,0. I then scatter plot all shots on a single bullseye target to derive his degrees offline and distance control miss.

At the State am he missed greens total due to the relativley conservative targets I gave him. Ex. From 120 with a pin 5 from the left I would use a 5% (% not degree) and have him aim a yard right of the pin. THe 5% was based on the mean leave for PGA Tour players. What I realized from plotting the shots is that his shot distribution is oblong, not normal around the center of the bullseye. Meaning he really doesn't hit is offline too much from inside 150.

I want to give him the best chance of getting it close without missing too many greens which leads to too many 4-6' par putts, not a good idea for him.

Then in your question of do I say hit it at X but don't hit it left of the pine is something that is already figured in by the target I give him. Never ever say "don't hit it there". I select the target both line and distance that his shot distribution should fit nicely into. If you never hit it in trouble or miss greens then you are losing value with regards to your birdie attempts. You need to miss some greens or your simply being too conservative, but not so many that you are turning your 6' birdie looks into 15' due to poor target selection.

As for taking it out on the caddie, he's a great kid and even if I messed up something big time he would never be a dick to me....not to mention there really isn't anything I could mess up. We have a laser and my math and strategy is sound. THere are times and will be more that we differ on initial reads, but we always agree prior to execution and if I talk him into a bad read (like I did on 9 today) it simply is what it is. Reading greens is hard. No biggie.

What my pedigree buys me is that he fully believes in my course management advice. Having him cruise to easily his biggest win first time I caddied for him clearly does nothing but solidify that. He recognizes on his good days he hits it better than I did, but the fact I won 10+ professional events, made it to the Nationwide/US Open/have 20 years experience on him is something he respsects.

So telling him to hit it 8 feet right from 150 with a pin tucked on the left is pretty sound advice and he recognizes it To be honest, I'm amazed how quickly he is picking up on solid strategy. I literally dictated every shot at the State Am and today I let him pick the target first and then refined it as need be. But I wanted him to learn how to do it and thus let him pick first.

Cliffs: not every kid is a know it all punk, Will is a great kid. If I didn't like him I wouldn't be traveling for a week to help him out. He is a gritty kid who works hard and I respect the **** out of that. I want to do all I can to help him make it, for no reason other than he's a good person.

So, today, quick recap as I'm tired and we go at 7:20 tomorrow.

He got off to a shaky start and didn't hit it very well but scrambled nicely for first 7 holes and played them -1 only hitting 2 greens. THen he started flushing it.

8 Driver 6 iron 570 yard par 5 to 8 feet, lipped out
9 wedge to 12 feet misread by Ship
10 9 iron to 15 feet but a brutally tough putt
11 9 iron to 15 feet canned to go -3.
12 9 iron to 8 feet and putt caught high lip but just didn't turn as much as we thought
13...****....GREAT drive leaving 255. Flared a hybrid right but not in bad shape about 20 feet from edge of green and tight pin. Play was to flop it on and let it run to abou 10-15 feet past. That's as good as he could do. He simply hit it too hard and had 30 feet coming back, no biggie. Hit it 3' past and had a slick left to right putt coming back that he gunned a bit and caught high lip for power lip to 4' and missed that. Ouch, 4 putt double after being 35' from hole n 2.

Rest was pretty solid but just didn't get anything to drop.

This round was a bit of both worlds, a great job of grinding the first few holes and salvaging, then flushing it and not getting much out of it, massive opps and then back to steady.

It really did nohting but solidify my confidence he's going to be right in the mix. As long as he doesn't run into a buzzsaw, and if he does have it line up with his good round. I really just don't think he's going to hit it bad enough for an entire day to not be competitive. Just needs to not want it too much and let the golf play itself out.

GOGOGOGOOGOOGOGOGOOGOGOGOGOGOOGO!

amazing and informative post. thanks scott

and good luck btw!

-3 today for a -4 total and in 4th place. Well done sir!!

Obviously a troll account, no one is hitting driver-6i into a 570 yard par 5.

Article on the USGA website about him: http://www.usga.org/ChampEventArticl...id=21474870684

Any TV coverage of this later this week. I'm seeing some time slotted for the ladies US junior Friday and Saturday...

Friggin iPad + hotel internet is a bad combo.

He friggin striped it today. 12/14 FW. 16 greens and 1 par five in two.

He actually rolled it pretty well today. He was all over the hole most if the time. That said he did miss 9 putts inside of 15'. Made a couple of good 4' par putts and a couple of 10' buries putts.

He honestly didn't miss a shot today. The two greens he missed were a fringe from 15' and I wanted him to try a 3 wood off the tee on the only hole that has me a little confused on what to hit. It's a275 to cover a bunker and I wanted to see what he could do....bunker. Oops.

Match play tomorrow and should be a fun 1-4 days....hopefully closer to 4 days.

I believe it's on golf channel Friday and Saturday.

Pretty solid couple of days. He played Caleb Proveaux who had his older brother Cody on the bag. Cody and Will played a bunch of junior golf together a few years ago so it was a nice comfortable pairing.

They both hit sloppy tee shots off the first hole and Will hit a great recovery to about 15’ while Caleb did good work just to get a 12’ par putt. Will lipped out and Caleb made his…hello match play!

On two will was about 6’ in left rough and sitting down pretty bad. He hit a 9 iron from 178 that squirted right and was in a bad spot short sided, he hit an ok shot out to 12’. Caleb had about 30’ for birdie and lagged it to a 1’ before Will made his par putt….hello match play!

3 was basic pars.

4 – Will hammered 3 wood leaving 226 and Caleb was dead in a FW bunker. Hacked it into the next bunker and still had 70 in for his 4th. Will put it just off the left of the green and chipped it down to about 8’ which wasn’t too bad from where he was. It was a brutally slick chip. 1 UP

5 – This is the hole we tested a 3 wood yesterday and it was what we went with today. He piped it right over the bunker leaving 140. Caleb then hit a poor second into the greenside bunker and hacked it up. 2 UP

6 – Caleb again found a FW bunker and couldn’t get home. Will hit it within a foot of where I told him to on his second and left himself 15’ which was conceded. 3 UP

7 – 7 iron from 193 to 10’ and made a super slick slider. 4 UP

8 – Hammered driver leaving 226 with the pin on the left. Target was 15’ right of the pin and he hit a beauty that started turning right at it and took 3 hops and hit the stick and stopped 8’. Caleb was in a greenside bunker and hit a good shot to 5’. Will cans the eagle. 5 UP

9 - Will hammers 3 wood leaving 126. Caleb hit a good driver and probably had 140. He hit it to what looked like 4’ so we took an aggressive line and he just missed it right and it kicked down in the bunker. Poorish bunker shot leaving 12’ and misses. Concede. 4 UP at the turn.

10 – solid USGA fashion they moved the tees up on a 420 yarder to 310. 290 to carry water short and the FW actually pinches in somewhere around 140 but I had no idea where as this one caught us off guard. Hitting 9 iron to leave a wedge seemed odd, but long is DEAD. I talked him into flaring a driver off the left bunker and trying to float it to the right side of the green. Pin was tucked right, but there was a good amount of FW right of the green to. He flared it perfect to 10’ and made it for eagle while Caleb was kind of butchering it after taking a conservative road. 5 UP

11 – Great driver leaving 155. 9 iron to 20’ and basic 2 putt. 5 UP

12 – Good par 3 and hit a nice 9 iron to 25’, basic 2 putts pars. 5 UP

13 - Pulled driver a tad and was buried in the rough 240 out. Hit a solid wedge out of the hay to leave 60 yards. Caleb hit the FW and then put 3 wood about 20 yards short of green. Will hit a good 60 to 8’ and Caleb hit a poor chip to 10’. Caleb misses and Will makes a solid 6” breaker to win 6&5.

Next up some kid from China. He was Even in qualifying with two triples and was -4 for 14 today in winning his match 5 & 4. Tough looking draw for both in a second round match.


GOGOOGOGOGOOGOGOGOOGOGOOGOGOGOGOOGOGO!