Shot Patterns with Irons

Here is an interesting little nugget I have been noticing quite a bit lately. The above screen shot indicates a typical shot pattern for a right hander when hitting a short to mid iron. I'm sure many of you have noticed how those pulls that feel so good tend to go further. As you might imagine this is not unique to your game and the image above clearly shows how shots to the left tend to travel further than shots to the right. What can we learn from this? Right handed golfers can afford to be slightly more aggressive when pins that are located in either the front right or back left of greens and should shy away from front left and back right pins.

How about the challenge that the short 12th at Augusta (below) presents to right handed competitors? The greens is a mere 9 yards deep between the bunkers. The hard part is that due to the angle at which the green sits, a slight pull is long and a slight push is short and wet. With a 150 yard shot and the pin in the center of the green the above golfer has hit the green only twice in ten tries - two pars, four bogeys and four doubles!

This might have a little something to do with why the Masters has seen an influx of left handed champions in recent years - Weir, Mickelson and Bubba. I would also much rather fade my driver than try to hit draws on all those hook tee shots - so much easier to control...

Coming soon - the follow up article to this one explaining typical shot patterns with the driver. A hint, it's not what you might think...

Augusta National in Winter

We have all seen the images before, but here is a wintry primer to help you get through these last 60 days of winter and get you ready for the Masters.

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Masters Week 2010 Edition

The week that every golfer anticipates from all the way back in November is finally here - Masters Week 2010! I would like this to be a one-stop shop for all things pertaining to Augusta National and the Masters and as a result I have tracked any and all pertinent information down and linked it to the site. Enjoy!

• Tournament Tee Times  All the best to KJ Choi and Matt Kuchar who drew the short stick - and Tiger!
• Masters.com  The Official Site - for the latest news and some great photography
• Live online coverage - here
• Official Course Tour
• Golf.com Masters Coverage
• Golf.com has some excellent and unusual aerial shots of the course

• Read some interesting first accounts of Tiger's Press Conference on Monday

• Golf Digest Masters Coverage
• The Golf Channel's Coverage
• TV Times and Schedule
• Updated Masters Odds  England finally seems to have a solid chance again in Poulter, Casey, Donald, Rose and Westwood.

• Augusta National just over 7 weeks ago! You have never seen the course looking like this....
• The course is closed during the summer. Here is what it looks like in the winter.....

This week also happens to mark the one year anniversary of andrewricegolf.com! In our first year we have had almost 40,000 visitors and continue to grow. Thanks so much for your support and readership and I can promise another year of even better and more insightful content.

BTW - my picks for this week are Phil and the Goose! Yours?

Enjoy the tournament.

News and Notes

• Could there be many things better in life than getting up early on a beautiful day to play 18 or 36 holes with close friends on a really fun golf course?
• The weather is getting better here in South Carolina and we are catching glimpses of Spring being just around the corner. I get the sense that most golfers have a case of "cabin fever" due to the taxing winter we have all experienced and are desperate to get out and play a little golf. Nothing turns my mind more to golf than warmth and sunshine after a long, cold winter.
• Jim Furyk and Ernie Els have won on the PGA Tour the last two weeks - is it really 2010? Its starting to feel a bit like old times. Even Vijay and KJ Choi have been playing better lately!

• As I'm sure you all know Tiger Woods is playing at Augusta. Tiger has surprised us all in many ways throughout his career, but this move truly puzzles me. I had always been under the impression that the man in the red shirt was about winning major championships, yet coming back at the Masters, instead of getting an additional prior event under his belt, tells me this is more about image and self preservation than major championship victories. What chance does he have of winning - really? By not playing at Bay Hill and starting at Augusta National he has said to me that he would rather preserve what is left of his "aura" (with substantial help from the good people in the green jackets!) than give himself another opportunity to get one notch closer to Jack.

• An interesting note from the Tavistock Cup - Elin was present without Tiger at the lavish party thrown for participants and sponsors at Isleworth last night. Tiger was practicing at Augusta yesterday so read whatever you want into that.
• My picks for Augusta currently are Phil and the Goose. Lefty has been very quiet lately but that frequently has no bearing on his play in the majors and the Goose has been resurgent with his new belly putter. The course suits his big power game and I really think he might do something there this year.
• If anybody out there would like a golf lesson to "dust the rust" from their frigid golf games please give me a call at  (843)247-4688 if you are within reach of South Carolina or if not, shoot me a video via www.v1golfacademy.com where I am listed as a V1 instructor. The cost for video lessons via V1 is $40 and turnaround time is 48 hours. I would appreciate the opportunity to help make 2010 a great year for golf.
• A recent quote from a golfer who purchased "It's All About Impact"

"I have now read through your book, It's All About Impact, twice. It is very well-done with good, understandable explanations, and the photos illustrate well and definitely define "a picture is worth a thousand words"! I had actually played Monday and just focusing on the 84 degrees and impact made a noticeable difference with balance and actual ball contact. I still have a way to go to get the correct divot but it sure seemed to simplify thoughts. I actually started hitting with more distance without trying due to the more solid contact. Every day is a different day but this sure helps consistency. Thanks!!" DB

I hope "It's All About Impact" can do the same for you and your golf this year!

Please feel free to contact me with any golf queries, questions or ideas you may have. And thanks very much for reading!

Welcome to my Blog!

Welcome to my blog and thanks for checking in with andrewricegolf.com! It is an exciting week on the golf calendar and I am honored to launch this site in conjunction with the first major of the year - the Masters! I would like to encourage anyone who loves the game and is keen on improving to subscribe to my RSS feed using any feed reader (even email!) by clicking on the subscribe button to the right. Every few days I will post on all things golf - with a definite slant toward swing mechanics and philosophy (sounds intimidating doesn't it?).  Many of you who know me, know that I am not a fan of deeply complex or intricate swing jargon (what with being fairly simple minded and all!) and will thus strive to keep it real - real as in, this is something that is simple to do, easy to comprehend, and it works!

I will also sound off on my opinions pertaining to course architecture (old school rules!), teaching technology, PGATour players (these guys do not know how good they have it!), where golf is headed (?), fantasy golf, golf fashion (beware the white shirt and khaki brigade...) and a quandry of other meaningless topics that include the word golf.

My thoughts on the changes at Augusta National and the Masters are echoed here in this quote from Ben Crenshaw:

(I hope that Billy Payne will slowly get the course back to the old risk-reward beauty that it used to be!)

The old Augusta was a tightrope, where risks were encouraged but a fall could hurt. "You always felt at Augusta you could take a chance on something, whether it was a tee ball or a second shot," Crenshaw says. "You had more room to play, and more people could play dangerously. It was totally different from any challenge in the world." To Crenshaw, the narrowing of the fairways from the equivalent of wide boulevards to country lanes altered things dramatically. "The second cut on lots of holes—that's first and foremost, because the course went from here to like this," he says, moving his hands very close together. "I think they needed to do something in the way of length, [but] I wouldn't have constricted it as much.

"There is no question it has become more of a defensive proposition," he continues. "The thing that set Augusta apart forever is that it's exciting and theatrical. People would pull off shots, but the flip side of that is that if you failed—and Jones wrote about this—it would tax you mentally. If you failed, it had a big effect on you. All I remember is how I felt there as a player [in my prime]. I hope the guys today are doing the same gyrations that we did. That, to me, is the question.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear your comments!