Disclaimer: I’m currently a 6 handicap who believes he thinks a way better game of golf than he plays. 15 Months ago I didn’t have a handicap having lived on an island that didn’t have a golf course and consequently not playing much for the last 12 or so years. So i've worked hard at all aspects of the game with my coach to try and get to a decent competitive level.
I’ve done some caddying in the past for friends but not for a decent amount of time so you could say my experience was decent amateur events, mini pro tours etc. Most of my observations and comments come from this week inside the rope being able to compare pros and amateurs side by side and general things I see in my usual games.
I forgot to add a story about Williams is that if he thinks a caddy has done a poor job raking a bunker he looks up who hit the ball in there on Shot Tracker and goes after the caddy to chew him out which made me laugh. He also has his own special technique so that if someone returns the favour he can confirm or deny accountability. I’m sure if he could he would prefer to sign his work instead.
The Hills course in particular is covered in these amazing pieces of art. The horses here each cost 200$k and by the 18th there is an awesome one which has 120 wolves and a hunter. His house backs on to one of the holes and he has his own par 3 in the garden which is pretty cool. None of them intervene in play unless you thin one off the tee or try and play out of the lakes but they are an interesting part of the course.
They are hoping to make it the opening event of the Japanese tour next year and i think the purse this week was just over a million dollars. The amateurs paid 10$k to play this week and get treated really well, loads of free gear and stuff. The other amateur in the group ended up getting in by winning a chipping competition that the local clubs hosted. Which was pretty cool.
Birdies on the 18th @ Millbrook
They’ve just announced some changes to how the tournament will be run for the next few years. This gives an idea at the costs and other issues that go in to holding events like this and not having the pulling power of the bigger tours. I know they are trying really hard to get Danny Lee in the field next year and it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if they threw some serious wedge at him to appear.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news...ectid=11604914
Both practice days were beautiful weather, glorious sun and just a small breeze. The courses were in great nick and the scenery was just incredible.
The first thing that I really noticed was that the courses themselves were not particularly tough. By this I mean that there aren’t a lot of silly carries or trick shots, it was set up fair and honest. The amateurs played one tee up from the pros and id say there were “only” 4 or so holes where there was a noticeable difference.
The key would be off the tee, if you put it in the right spots then you gave yourself every chance of scoring well. I know that this is becoming the more universal view now but Kieran made the valid point that the old adage of "Drive for show, Putt for dough" is basically redundant now and especially for amateurs the opposite is true.
If you don’t get off the tee well then you are already behind the 8 ball on the hole and playing catch up. It’s something I’ve noticed in my game improvement this year is better and more consistent driving, not necessarily taking a driver off every tee but the club that puts you in the position to set up best for your approach. It allows you so many more and better looks at getting your GIR stats up and therefore making more birdies and pars.
My player was hitting the ball ok but his course management was poor, as was his club selection. An observation I have each week whilst playing is that lots of amateurs are obsessed with how far they hit each club and then become stuck on that number.
For example, if they hit a 7i 150y, then all they think of when having that distance is hitting that club. In reality that’s obviously useful to have that number as a base but only gives you a piece of the picture and you need to use that number in conjunction with other information.
Most greens are at least 2 clubs in size and some this week were 3. I tried to coax my player in to thinking about a few other factors e.g Where is the trouble, Does the ball need to carry a certain number to get on a tier or carry a false front, what’s behind the hole and does it help the shot i.e a favourable slope? He hit a similar number to me so just by talking him through these kind of things instead of just grabbing the club he soon caught on and grew in confidence. It only takes a few seconds and especially at your home course is something you can think about when walking between shots so no time wasting.
Here is a copy of the yardage chart we were given this week so you can see what i mean.
The format for the week for the Pro/Am teams was a best Nett. The game plan would be to try and have 2 or more pars/nett birdies per 9 for the Amateur and then throw in whatever the pro did. To make the cut in previous years it would take -10 to -12 to make the top 40. We were joined by a few different pros as we played our practice rounds. One amusing one was the son of a horse trainer and obviously likes a gamble so we spent 2 holes listening to the races on his phone whilst he phoned in his bets. Over both practice rounds our group nearly had 2 holes in one. My guy lipped out on a par 3 where it just had too much juice to drop and then the pro stuck it to about 8 inches on a 300m par 4. We were drawn as the very last group off on day one so a tee time of 1.55 meant time to go out and see what the local pubs had to offer that evening.