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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2008 (Part 7)

Letter to Emily

by Leith Anderson

The History:

I first met Emily Childs five years ago. She was a bright-eyed eighth grader with ambitions to become a tournament player. She had one big advantage over most kids – a great coach, mentor and caddy: her father John. John is an accomplished golfer. He won the medalist trophy in the San Francisco City Amateur in 1986 and went on to try his luck on the mini tours. He’s been with Emily every step of the way. Emily’s goal was to become a good enough player to earn a college golf scholarship.

We built Emily a set of clubs. During the next few years we stayed in touch – occasionally tweaking the clubs – playing a couple of practice rounds together. Once in a while I built a new driver to accommodate Emily’s increasing strength but none made it into her bag. She likes the feel of a flexible shaft and stuck with the original. We built new irons, with the same forged heads but a tad stiffer than the originals. Those didn’t make the cut either. Emily’s younger sister Carly is playing with them today.

Emily played the Northern California Junior Amateur circuit every year. She became a regular in American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) tournaments. Success didn’t come easy but she persevered. In time, she started finishing higher. A breakthrough second place finish in an AJGA Tournament at Ruby Hills a couple of years ago was a huge confidence builder.

Early this year there was a brief crisis. An accident snapped the shaft on Emily’s driver with an important tournament in two days. Alas, the original shaft was no longer available. A late night session at the Golf Lab resulted in a new Fujikura Rombax mounted in her trusty Nakashima driver. It was a good match. She won the tournament at Spanish Bay and was named AJGA Player of the Year. “Mr. Fuji” earned his name in that tournament. Emily’s record caught the attention of many college coaches.

In March every year the biggest Northern California tournament is the San Francisco City Amateur. “The City” – which started in 1917 - is now the oldest municipal golf tournament in the United States. There are plenty of big names on that trophy. Emily made it through qualifying and then two rounds of 18 hole matches. She won her 36 hole semi final match on Saturday and then faced Dorothy Schwartz, a precocious 15 year old, in the final. That match went to the last putt on the 36th hole. Emily won the marathon tournament. With that win, she earned a place in San Francisco golf history.

Emily is from Alameda. The Alameda Commuters Golf Tournament has been contested for 81 years, giving competition to the illustrious neighbor across the Bay. The Chuck Corica golf complex in Alameda is Emily’s home course. The Commuters draws the strongest field of any Northern California amateur tournament. All of the past champions show up as well as players from the area college teams. The Commuters is open to all comers – including women – provided that you’re ready to play from the black tournament tees.

Emily entered the Commuters the last couple of years with the goal of making the cut against the men. This year it happened. She shot a couple of 74’s to make the cut on the number and then followed the next weekend with a stellar 71 on Saturday and another 74 on Sunday. She beat half the men who made the cut. At the awards ceremony, she received individual recognition and a bouquet of roses. She was the first woman to make the cut in the Commuters and not only that, the first woman ever to make the cut in any Northern California Golf Association (NCGA) open tournament.

Emily will be attending the University of Colorado in September on a full-ride golf scholarship. Mission accomplished.

The Project:

I’m an Emily Childs fan. I’ve watched her grow up and watched her become a formidable competitor. I followed her when she won the San Francisco City and when she made history at the Alameda Commuters. I trekked down to Half Moon Bay to watch her in the U.S. Women’s Open Qualifier. I saw almost every shot over four tournament rounds.

In the City, I watched her struggle against a strong opponent. When it looked bleak, she came through with clutch shots. The wedge on six, the four iron on eight, the six foot downhill slider on ten and the six iron to the tucked pin on seventeen each turned back the tide. A complete description of that match is archived on www.calgolftech.com.

In the third round of the Commuters, I saw her make a run at “going low”. If it weren’t for the crazy tree in front of the ninth green, she could have been standing on the twelfth tee four under par. Unfortunately, three bogies coming home let a low score slip away. She settled for even par.

The fourth round of the Commuters proved she could grind it out. Her game wasn’t as sharp as the day before. Wayward shots on seven, eight and nine took her to three over par. But she saved the day with nine straight pars on the back nine including three tricky par saves.

The Women’s Open Qualifying on the Half Moon Bay Old Course was another endurance test. Going off first at 7:30 AM on a cold and windy morning she played well enough to finish in the top 10 with an 80. The medalist score was 77.

After the Women’s Open Qualifying round I sat down with Emily and John for a discussion of what I observed over the four rounds – with a focus on how Emily’s golf clubs performed and modifications that she might consider to make sure that she has the “right tools” to help take her to the next level – and maybe another level after that.

Emily graciously agreed to share that conversation in a “Letter to Emily” – with the hope that it would inspire other young women to pursue their dream of becoming a Champion golfer – and perhaps shorten the path a step or two.

Dear Emily,

It has been a great experience and pleasure to have had a chance to work with you over the last five years and contribute just a little to your success. I am an Emily Childs fan. I have watched you grow up. I have watched you struggle through adversity and come out a Champion. You deserve the success you have achieved. If you were to never win another golf tournament, it won’t matter. You will always have your name on the San Francisco City Championship trophy. It will be there after we are all long gone. You have a legacy.

Your performance in the Alameda Commuters proved that you can play with anyone. You beat former Commuters champions and college varsity players head to head. That should give you a great deal of confidence playing college golf against your peers where your opponents won’t be out driving you by fifty yards.

As you begin to think about competing at the “next level”, you will have plenty of options. For my part, I would like to give you some ideas about your golf equipment. I watched you closely during your Championship Match in the City, two rounds at Alameda and the Women’s Open Qualifier. My focus was on how your clubs performed under the pressure of competition.

In the past, you have sometimes had to make do with the clubs that you had. Your competition budget did not allow expensive trial and error experimentation. In the future, there won’t be any of those limitations. The cost of your equipment will never again prevent you from having the very best clubs for your game in your bag.

To some extent, the pressure should be reduced during the summer tournament season. Hopefully, that will give you the time and opportunity to practice and experiment with some new and different clubs that might help you shave another stroke or two from your average scores. You might find that the new clubs will also help you expand your repertoire of shots.

Following are my observations and recommendations from your recent tournament rounds.

Driver and Fairway Metals

Driving is probably the best part of your game. You hit it long. There were several times at the Commuters when your playing partners looked over their shoulders and did a double take. They didn’t expect you to be so close. But when you miss a drive, you almost always miss it left. Your misses with your driver frequently follow an incident on a previous hole that motivated you to express your anger by crushing the little white ball. Missing left usually indicates a shaft that is too flexible. Twice, you saved pars chipping out of the trees, but most of the time a miss left resulted in bogey.

Ultimately, you will be more consistent with a stiffer shaft in your driver. We should also have a close look at the “bend profile” of your driver shaft. Your current Fujikura shaft has an active tip. A stiffer tip will cut down spin. To maintain that soft feel that you like, we can find a shaft with a flexible butt section. When the time comes that you’re a little steamed up and want to crank a driver, you won’t have to worry about ending up in the trees on the left.

Your fairway metal shafts are also too flexible. Even “your baby” – the KZG Cobalt five metal – is too easy for you to “turn over”. In the second round of the Commuters, on the sixth hole your ball was in a difficult lie in the rough. You needed to dig it out. You chose the five metal and hit it hard. It went left. You ended up in the rough, not a horrible position, but your wedge came out a little heavy, short of the green. You made a good par save but you had to work too hard on an easy par five.

The difficult par save raised your competitive temperature a few degrees. You are an emotional player – most great players are. The next hole was a difficult, 200 yard par three into the wind. You chose “your baby” again and hit it hard. Too much draw. You ended up in the left bunker and made bogey.

That was your first bogey of the day and it raised your temperature a few more degrees. On the next tee, you hit your drive hard, turned it over, and were lucky that it just clipped a few branches of the big tree left off of the tee. Instead of an iron into the green, you had a fairway metal from the rough. You turned over too much. The low, hooking runner ended up in the front bunker and resulted in another bogey.

I thought I saw a little steam coming out of your ears on the ninth tee. Once again, a little extra energy on the drive resulted in a miss left. Three bogeys in a row. Those were the only blemishes on your round. That rough patch might have been caused by the first errant five metal. Missing an easy shot at the wrong time can throw a round out of whack.

You’ve been playing with flexible shafts in your driver and fairway metals for a long time. It might be a little frustrating to get used to a new feel, but it will be worth it. When you want to hit it hard, you won’t have to worry about missing left.

I think that there is also an argument that your driver trajectory is a bit too high. As you begin to play courses in other parts of the country, especially courses with harder fairways, a lower trajectory could provide more distance from increased roll. Plus, if you find yourself in windy conditions, a lower trajectory could help you control your drives better. Today, when you want to hit it low, you tee it low. The problem with that method is that it increases spin. That is the reason that your drive on the sixteenth hole at Half Moon Bay ended up in the trees on the left after starting down the right side of the fairway. You blistered that drive but didn’t get the easy approach that you deserved. An easy solution is another driver or two, same specifications, different loft. Phil Mickelson has even carried two drivers for the same round.

There’s another issue with your driver. Today, your shot shape is always a draw. Some holes simply demand a fade. A good example is the fourteenth at Half Moon Bay – that sharp dogleg right with out of bounds right and left. In the Open Qualifier, you chose a three wood off the tee to protect against going long and left. You ended up short, with a difficult lie in the rough. Your next shot with a nine iron was short and lead to a double bogey. If you had a “power fade” in your bag, you could have blown your drive over the bunker and ended up with a flip lob wedge and chance for a birdie. You only missed medalist by four strokes. Trade a double for a birdie and you’re almost there. Sometimes, an aggressive play is the safest play.

Another way to fight against “going left” is to choose a driver with an open face angle. In our search for your next “Magic Driver” we should consider face angle as one of the key factors. A driver with a face angle one or two degrees open would be less dangerous with your extreme inside-out swing path. An open face angle would also make it easier to hit the power fade.

One final tweak is the Balance-Certified Shaft Stabilizer. The Stabilizer is a weight that goes under your hands. It always results in increased ball speed and most of the time improves center contact. Once we find your next “Magic Driver” we can squeeze out eight more yards and keep you a little closer to the sprinkler line.

Irons – Long Game

I love your four iron. In your City Championship match, after three-putting the eighth to go one down, you murdered a four iron on the par three eighth that was like a laser shot. One hundred and eighty five yards into the wind – unbelievable. There were others. The fifth hole at the Commuters the first day. The eighth hole at the Commuters for a miracle birdie. The thirteenth at Half Moon Bay. That four iron is “magic”.

Your Baliwick irons are a great fit, four through six. They are a tad oversize, a little longer heel to toe and very similar to the long and mid irons that a lot of Tour professionals are playing. They fit the “high moment of inertia” profile for long irons that is gaining popularity on the world Tours.

I am not so sure about your short irons. The same characteristics that make the long and mid irons good may not carry over to your short irons. If there is a weakness in your game, I would say it’s your short irons. I can’t remember any short irons that you hit stiff for birdies in any of the competitive rounds that I saw. You had some key misses. The most recent were the fourteenth and eighteenth holes at Half Moon Bay. The common denominator? The misses were from the rough.

For short irons, most professionals are sticking with compact, muscle back or shallow cavity forged blades. There could be an advantage in going to a smaller blade in your short irons. First and foremost, a smaller blade with a little more radius on the sole and a bit more camber front to back will allow you to “dig” the ball out of the rough more effectively. The new playing style is “bomb and gouge” – and that goes for women as well as men. Smaller blades will also be more consistent from tight fairway lies where you have to get the club on the ball first. Firm fairways with short grass are a characteristic of championship courses. Nothing says that irons have to “match” through a set. The trend is toward “game improvement” features in long and mid irons and “dart throwers” for short irons. We can test that theory easily. I’ll make you up a short set of forged “players” blades – 7 through PW. Take them to the course with a pocket full of balls. Hit shots out of the rough and from tight lies to compare performance. That’s the way to know for sure.

Another interesting option will be to “flight” your short iron shafts to try for a lower trajectory. I would like to see you “take dead aim” with your short irons.

One more option to consider is filling the “gap” between your five wood and four iron with a 21* hybrid. Considering how well you hit your long irons, a hybrid with that loft might give you more accuracy and a better chance to dig a shot out of the rough. It could turn into a “big brother” for your four iron.

Wedges

You are terrific around the greens with your 60* lob wedge. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen you save par with delicate chips and pitches.

I couldn’t help but notice that you don’t seem to have a “flop” shot. That hurt you twice in your Sunday round at the Commuters. On the sixth hole, from in front of the green, your short pitch didn’t carry the mound on the back of the bunker and the ball kicked left. Fortunately, you made a great eight footer to save par. On the seventeenth, again from just short of the green, you needed a lob to get to the pin tucked behind a trap. A short tap in for birdie would have been nice. You couldn’t make that shot with your current tools and technique.

The one time that you tried to play a flop shot resulted in disaster. That was the fifteenth in the City Championship when you chunked a couple of flops from left of the green and lost the hole. You need that shot.

The problem is the sole grind on your lob wedge. It has a lot of bounce. That makes it difficult to open the blade and get the ball up off of tight lies. A new technique is emerging on the world Tours. Many Tour players have begun to play their lob shots off of the toe of their wedge. To accommodate that shot, a custom grind relieves bounce on the toe. I think that the best current wedge model for multiple uses around the green is the Scratch “SFU” grind. “SFU” is the custom grind produced for Stan Utley (the “other” short game guru). Utley advocates using a single, 58* wedge for all shots around the green. The Scratch SFU grind has a relieved heel and toe which lets you play your lob shots on the toe with an upright swing or from the heel with an open blade and flatter swing. A different lob wedge will give you more versatility with your short shots.

In the competitive rounds that I saw, I don’t remember you getting up and in from a bunker. You made a clutch bunker shot on the eleventh hole in the City Championship – but it was still a bogey. Overall, you are reliable in getting out of bunkers but rarely hit it close. In the Commuters you made back to back bogies from bunkers on seven and eight. You favor your 60* wedge for bunker shots. You hit well behind the ball and take a lot of sand. Your technique does not produce much spin. A problem with a 60* wedge from bunkers is that the ball doesn’t carry very far unless you square the face and hit close to the ball. That shot can be dangerous.

A new trend among Tour professionals is to go with a “three wedge system”. The highest loft wedge is 58*. That is complimented by a 53* wedge (plus or minus a degree). The 53* wedge is good for “double duty”. It is a “gap wedge” from the fairway and also a good long range bunker club. Unlike the 58* wedge, the 53* has a full heel which makes it useful out of bunkers when you need to open the blade and create a lot of spin.

Most of your bunker shots that I remember ran past the pin. I think that you will need to perfect a bunker shot that you execute with a wide open blade with a sand iron that has lots of bounce – at least 12* and possibly 14*. That shot will carry most of the way to the hole and stop quickly. For distance, you should try sand irons with 53* or 54* of loft. Nothing says that a sand iron has to be 56*.

A “new technology” that has emerged in the last few years is “spin milling” on the faces of wedges. The essence of accuracy and consistency with irons is consistent spin. Spin milling has gained popularity on Tour where players need to stop their wedges on linoleum table tops. Vijay Singh and Padraig Harrington are known to change their wedges weekly to maintain spin control. The new Bobby Jones wedges – designed by Jesse Ortiz and Dave Pelz – are the best new wedge design. They feature a “hardened” textured face insert so you won’t wear them out in a week.

You can decide if you like the soft “forged feel” or the firmer feel of the Bobby Jones wedges. Scratch uses a very soft carbon steel in their wedges. Bobby Jones is the opposite in hardness but maintains feel with a cushion insert under the face. The Bobby Jones wedges are likely to produce more consistent spin but lack the versatility of the Scratch sole grind.

In the future, you will choose your wedge lineup depending on course conditions. Tour professionals frequently arrive at a tournament with six or eight wedges in their travel bags and pick the “gamers” depending on the demands of the golf course. You might need a bigger travel bag.

Putting

You are absolutely great from short distances. In all of the competitive rounds that I saw, I don’t remember a single miss from inside five feet. There were plenty of chances for you to miss a slider or two.

I am not as impressed with your long approach putts. Maybe one of the reasons that you are so good with the five footers is that you get a lot of practice.

There are a couple of “gizmos” that I think you should try. In the last couple of years, a lot of attention has focused on weight and balance with putters. There was the “Heavy Putter” trend a couple of years ago that was popular. The notion was that extra weight in a putter takes your hands and wrists out of the stroke and relies on your “big muscles” to produce a consistent stroke.

We should try counter weighting your current YES putter. That will give you the opportunity to test different weights and balance and see if a little more heft in your putter gives you better distance control and improves your on-center hit percentage. You tend to miss your long putts toward the heel of your putter. I have found that a heavier putter works for me – possibly because I don’t have to put too much energy into a long putt.

There is no science to finding the “best” weight and balance. It will be a “do it yourself project”. You get a kit. The weights install in your putter shaft under the grip. Only experimentation will tell you which one works best.

Another interesting experiment will be to try the Balance-Certified “Frequency Filtered” putter shaft. The notion is that “feel” is vibration that comes up the shaft, through your hands and into your brain. The inventor, former NASA engineer Jeff Lindner is the same guy behind the Shaft Stabilizer. I would like to see you have more stress-free tap ins after your thirty foot approach putts.

Course Management

We’ll give your “caddy” credit for this. Over many rounds, I was astounded by how well you control distance. Many times you had to play around obstacles that your stronger opponents could carry. You ended up hole high, twenty feet right or left.

You are extremely disciplined. You play high percentage shots. You always aim for the opening if going for the pin is dangerous. I think that the reason you were so competitive at the Commuters was that you simply “out-thunk” your opponents. When you needed to chip out from the trees, you ended up in the right place and sometimes made outstanding par saves. In all of the tournament rounds that I watched, I only remember one double bogey. That’s proof that you know how to manage your game.

Your method it totally “throwback”. I think that you were the only player in the Commuters that didn’t use a laser range finder. I bought a Distance Caddy – the GPS version – and I’m sure that it saves me two shots a round. At my level, knowing the distance to the front edge and back edge is enough. Most tournament players want to know the exact distance to the pin. They choose the laser range finder.

I have played several rounds with the Stanford team members. In competition, most players “scope” every shot. Same at the Commuters. When I dropped back to watch the last couple of groups of the leaders, every one scoped every shot.

When you get to the “Big Time” you’re going to be back to carrying your own bag and figuring your own distances without the help of your “professional” caddy. Your range finder will never replace the advice and counsel of your rounds with your father, but it will be a welcome friend when you’re on your own.

Next Steps:

I’ve got a few test clubs ready to go. You’ll need to put in some time over the next few weeks to see which of these ideas will work for you. When we find a head style that you like, we can fine tune the shaft choice for feel, flex and balance. It might take some work but if we can trim a stroke or two a round, the effort will be worthwhile.

A final tweak will be to pay close attention to your grips. Over the years, we’ve stuck with “plain vanilla” but you might find that one of the newer designs feels a little better. You never know where the “magic” will come from.

In the meantime, we’ll leave your current clubs alone – to make sure you can always go back to the tried and true. With some work and a little luck, we might have a better set of tools for you to take to Colorado in August when you start your college tournament career.

Best of Luck,

Leith

Leith Anderson is a Partner in the Golf Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
He will answer any and all questions about club fitting and club making. Contact: Leith@calgolftech.com. Or by phone (650) 493-1770