Phil and I went and played at the Walden Country Club in Crofton. For me, that’s the tenth round of the year at seven different courses. We played from the gold tees with 5,176 yards and a course rating and slope of 65.2 and 115, just slightly harder than the gold tees at our “home” course. Bowie. Our final scores, 101 for me and 100 for Phil would suggest that the course is harder than that. The main difference it that Walden has a lot more places to get into trouble than Bowie does. Only a few holes have any significant trouble. If you hit it straight, even if it’s not long, you should be fine at Walden.
I also struggled with the putter, with the yips coming back. If you’re afraid they might be contagious, you might not want to watch the video. As you’d expect with those scores, there weren’t any birdies and only six pars between the two of us. For me, there were 4 pars, 6 bogeys, 3 double bogeys, 4 triple bogeys and one 6x bogey (an 11 on a par 5 – what’s that called?).
It’s the first day to hit the 70s in Maryland in 2026 and Barry, Rich and I made it out to Blue Heron Golf Course in Stevensville for a quick round, playing from the white tees. Sadly, the more interesting back nine was closed due to green aeration and over-seeding and they had covered the greens with plastic sheeting. It isn’t expected to re-open until around April 12th, so if you’re heading that way just know that you’ll have to play the front twice to get in 18 holes. As the front nine is composed of 5 par 3s and 4 par 4s, playing the front nine twice will make it a par 62. As previously reported, the round was $20, a great deal, and they don’t take tee times – so just show up. It also cost me two golf balls in water hazards.
I started the round strong, shooting par, birdie, par on the first three holes. I hit 3-wood and pitching wedge then two-putted the 319-yard par 4 first hole for par. I overshot the green on the 320-yard dogleg left par 4 after hitting 4-wood and 6-iron, then chipped in for a birdie – the only birdie the three of us had today. On the 187-yard par 3 third, I hit a 4-wood to the short-right of the green, chipped up close and one-putted for a par. The next three holes were not nearly as good, shooting bogey, bogey and double bogey. I hit a three-quarter pitching wedge just over the green on the 105-yard par 3, chipped close but missed the short putt, ending up with a bogey. On the 287-yard par 4 dogleg left fifth hole, hitting over water twice, I pushed a 4-wood way right, forcing a short chip back into the fairway, then hit the green with a pitching wedge and followed up with a two-putt for a bogey. The 142-yard par 3 sixth hole, with the peninsula green, has been my Waterloo the last couple of rounds here. I hit a 6-iron into the water on the right, chipped from the drop area and two-putted for my first (spoiler alert) double-bogey. I finished the front nine with bogey, bogey and par. I topped a 6-iron on the 162-yard par 3 seventh hole, followed by a three-quarter pitching wedge and two putts for a bogey. The 160-yard par 3 eighth hole was almost a mirror image of the seventh, with a topped 5-iron that stopped just short of the creek, then a half pitching wedge up the hill and two putts for bogey. On the 243-yard par 4 ninth hole, I hit a 3-wood then chipped a 7-iron from under a tree onto the green and two-putted for par. I felt pretty good about a five over 36 on the “front.” The back nine was not as kind.
Since we played the front nine twice, I won’t include hole details for the “back nine.” It started off well enough with bogey, par and par. On the first hole, I hit my best drive of the day for 229 yards with a 3-wood, leaving a short chip. A root caused a mishit second shot, followed by a half lob wedge over the sand trap and a missed short putt then a tap-in for bogey. On the second, I hit a 3-wood then 8-iron onto the green and two putted for par. I hit a 4-wood to within about two feet of the hole on the third and missed the birdie putt to leave with a par. The wheels came off on the next three holes with a bogey, double bogey and triple bogey. The 105-yard par 3 fourth hole played pretty much like it did on the front nine with a three-quarter pitching wedge just off the back of the green, followed by a chip and two putts for bogey. On the fifth hole, crossing water twice, I topped a 4-wood into the first water crossing, followed by a drop and a 4-wood to short right of the green, then a chip and two putts for the double bogey. On the par 3 peninsula sixth hole, I pushed a 7-iron way right, had to chip back to the front of the green, followed by another chip and my only three-putt of the day. The final three holes were slightly better with bogey, bogey and double bogey. On the seventh hole, I hit a 6-iron to the right of the green, chipped close and missed the short putt to score a bogey. On the next hole, I hit a 5-iron to the back right of the green then chipped on and two-putted for another bogey. The final hole saw me push a 4-wood way right then hit a tree on my second shot which landed behind me in the fairway for the fifth hole. I punched a 7-iron under the trees and almost made it to the green, chipped on and two-putted for a double bogey and a 42 on the par 31. Finished the 18 with a 16 over 78. My first time in the 70s at Blue Heron.
Barry and Rich played well but both lost balls too. Further details of this rounds story are theirs to tell. No video was taken so that we could better enjoy the weather. Clayt
Weather: 5.0 (Sunny and 68-72 degrees with a slight breeze)
Course Conditions: 3.0 (Back nine closed and greens and fairways haven’t actively started growing yet – greens were better than in the fall)
Speed of Play: 4.5 (Course was busier than usual since all groups were only playing nine of the eighteen holes – but it kept moving)
Golf Ball Danger Ranking: 2.5 (Lowered slightly with only two balls lost this round (see the Danger Ranking page)
There seem to be plenty of ways to “figure out” how far you hit each of the clubs in your bag. The simplest way for me would be to just use my Voice Caddie watch to tell me what to hit. Each time I hit a shot I can enter what club I used and after it collects enough data it will indicate I need to use the 6-iron on your next shot to the green. Seems easy and generally speaking it is. But it doesn’t give me an option for half and three-quarter shots with wedges or really help me with carry distances (except for the wedges where the carry distance and total distance are virtually the same). It also will include in those averages the shots where you hit six inches behind the ball or off the hosel. So if you want to know more about your club distances and are a spreadsheet geek, you might want to start collecting data and put together some formulas.
How I collect and analyze my shot data.
After I started playing again, the first thing I noticed was that my ball striking was not nearly as good as it was ten years ago, both in distance and consistency. My first reaction was to go to the driving range and start improving. Using the Top Tracer data, I started to compare my performance from one range session to another and finally started to aggregate the data and including shot data from actual rounds as collected by my golf watch.
So I put together a large Excel spreadsheet with distances marked across the top in five yard increments, and down the left side I put my clubs and shot characteristics, i.e. – carry distance of a 9-iron off grass would be “9i C grass.” Then each time I hit that shot I record the distance in the spreadsheet. Each line is then color coded to highlight the highest number of shots in green and the lowest in red.
Along the right side of the spreadsheet, I created formulas to calculate my actual yardages for each line, leaving out the top 10% and lowest 20% to get a “most likely outcome” for each club. So after 107 shots with my pitching wedge, the match suggests that I can carry a hazard that’s 92 yards away 80% of the time with that club, that my average carry is 104 yards and my average total distance is 106 yards.
When I play a round, I print out a strip from the right side and keep it in my pocket for those critical moments when I’m not sure which club I should use for a particular shot. It give me a lot more confidence when I’m hitting it.
After shooting a 99 from the whites at the River Marsh Golf Club a couple of days ago, writing two posts about the adventure, then starting work on what is to be my first video of a Maryland golf course, I continued to question my choice of hitting a 4-wood off the turf to the 170-yard 17th hole, requiring a carry of 150 to 160 yards to get over Shoal Creek and the marsh just on the other side. And it really isn’t just about my 4-wood carry distance but the carry distance of almost every club in my bag. My Voice Caddie T11 golf watch tells me how far I hit a shot but it only tells me the total distance and those are the numbers that I carry with me on a small card so I can make sure that I select the right club when I’m in doubt. So, to satisfy my curiosity I grabbed my trusty 4-wood and set off to the Severna Park Golf Center and their Top Tracer launch monitors to see what the statistics were for carry and total distance. And I thought, while I’m there, I’ll also bring along my Hack Motion swing aid and work on my correct hand position through the swing and, of course, my swing tempo.
Now you’re probably thinking that working on three things at the same time is probably a recipe for disaster. It’s a lesson I’ve learned before and probably one I’ll have to relearn in the future. You should go to the range and if you’re not just there to pound some balls then you should focus on just one thing to help you improve. It only took about 40 balls to almost completely destroy any confidence I had in my swing. I was scattering balls everywhere. It took the second half to get it back after I quit worrying about the three things I had come to the range to work on and just started hitting balls. Sometimes even one swing thought is one too many. For now, consider it relearned.
The second thing I took away from the second half of the driving range visit? Hitting the 4-wood off the turf at the River Marsh 17th was the right call to get the ball to the front of the green over dry land but it had only a 12.5% chance (based on the Top Tracer carry stats) of making it to dry land on the 17th. That’s seven out of every eight shots lost to the hazard. And yes, my ball was short and never found. According to the stats, If I had teed the ball up, the likelihood of getting to dry land rises to 75% and on average would have made it to the center of the green. Lesson learned. Starting today, I’ll do a better job of collecting the data for each of my clubs and modifying my distance cheat sheet to include that information. The Top Tracer app has a lot of that data, and I’ll be going back to previous sessions to see what insights can be gained.
Let me know if you already do something similar, how you collect it, and how you put it together to make it easy to use while out on the course. And if you use a launch monitor, let me know what one you use and what information you find useful.
In between Maryland snowstorms, with only a few courses open in Maryland, I was able to get in a round at the River Marsh Golf Club at the Hyatt Regency Resort in Cambridge. The course was in good condition, though not great, primarily driven by soggy fairways from the recent snow melt followed by rain, and the greens still suffering from the effects of aeration. The clubhouse, adjacent to the main resort building, normally houses the pro shop and the Eagle’s Nest Bar and Grille, but was under renovation. The course is in a naturally beautiful area with woods, marshes, creeks and rivers. The fairways are on the generous side but the Bermuda grass goes brown/tan during the winter and isn’t quite as visually stunning or as cushy/springy as during the summer. There is also a links-style, wind swept feel to the course even though it’s surrounded by trees. The architect has strategically placed 65 rather large, four to five-foot-deep bunkers along the fairways and around the greens, which are best to be avoided. As typical this time of year, the sand was compacted and firm, as I found during my thankfully only visit to one. Combined with the water, environmental marsh areas and some out-of-bounds areas there is plenty of trouble to be found.
Ratings:
Natural beauty: 4.5 Townhomes are being built along some of the holes which will likely detract from it
Grooming: 4.5 Well-maintained though the grass isn’t growing so they’re not mowing and the greens were still suffering from aeration
Conditions: 4.0 A little swampy but it is February in Maryland and most other courses were closed
Generosity: 5.0 Twelve-minute tee times, wide fairways and large greens
Lost ball danger: 4.0 Lost three but could have lost more
Value: 5.0 Winter rate is much lower than the summer rate. A beautiful course at a beautiful price.
The course has a two-week tee-time booking window, and the fees reflect “dynamically pricing,” which makes it difficult to determine from the website what range of prices one might expect to pay throughout the year. On this occasion, when the parking lot was pretty empty and golfing in Maryland isn’t in great demand, I made the reservation the night before and paid $48.24 per person, including a pristine cart with a detailed GPS display. Based upon the course, I believe that to be a great price. The course should be commended for spacing starting times 12 minutes apart, a generous amount of time for most courses and we were never delayed by the group in front or pushed by the group behind us, finishing in under 3.5 hours. The GPS displays are invaluable if you’re not familiar with the course and seem to better highlight trouble areas than my Voice Caddie T11. Unfortunately for me, the entire course was “cart path only” due to the soggy conditions so the cart never seemed to be close to my ball when I was standing over the ball and had doubt in my mind. I was also videotaping a course for the first time, so I didn’t pay enough attention to the GPS display or my watch when I needed to, costing me several strokes.
Their website doesn’t have a detailed layout of the course so pre-planning for those not familiar with the course is difficult. It has a series of beautiful videos with flyovers of holes 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 17 and 18 but they are a montage of views that don’t give you a good feel for the hole or the ability to measure distances but are definitely worth watching just for the sheer beauty. The site also has a Pro Tips page which briefly discusses each hole. They made a lot more sense to me after I’d played the course but seemed better suited to a better golfer than I. If you’re planning to play there for the first time, it may be helpful to visit my River Marsh Golf Club Pre-planning post, which provides an overview of each hole and the video.
We played the par 71 course from the white tees, making the total yardage 5,845 with a course rating of 69.1 and a slope rating of 125. I ended up with a score of 99, which I thought was awful, but given the difficulty of the course it turned out that my score would have been considered one of my better scores if used for determining my handicap, currently about 18.9. For senior men that hit their drivers 200 yards or more and their 5 iron 155 yards or more, I believe the white tee box will be appropriate but challenging. Shorter hitters should consider moving up to the green or red tee boxes. The green tees are a mix of the white and red tees. The longest forced carry is about 160 yards from the white tee on the par 3 17th hole. The shorter tee boxes are on the other side of Shoal Creek with no forced carry, and the other forced carries throughout the course are much more manageable. Knowing your carry distance and total distance for each club is also useful for this course.
My score was composed of one birdie, only two pars, four bogeys, eight double bogeys and three triple bogeys. Three lost balls due to water hazards/environmental marshes and one out of bounds, combined with seven three-putts hurt. I’d like to blame the lack of familiarity with the course for two of the lost balls, though paying more attention to the GPS in the cart might have convinced me to “play smarter.” I’d also like to blame my seven three-putts on the aerated greens but that didn’t seem to bother my playing partners. Maybe I need to practice more…
CQ’s scorecard, River Run Golf Club, Cambridge, February 2026
Does pre-planning a round at an unfamiliar course lead to better play? I know the pros prepare that way and believe that it could help remove some of the uncertainty involved when you’re not quite sure of the facts laid out in the fairway before you. After shooting a 99 at River Marsh and feeling uncertain about some of the shots, I thought maybe I should have scouted the course better – so I decided to do an after-action planning session. After putting it down on paper, it seems pretty simple to have shot a much lower score. Of course, after you hit the tee shot, you’ve got to be able to adjust the plan accordingly, such as deciding the play the hole like a par 5 rather than a par 4. “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” One thing I noticed in preparing this was that I was a little fuzzy on what the real “carry” distance was for each of my clubs. I’ll start working on getting that data together. Even though this one is after-action, I’ll try to really do a pre-plan for my next new course. So here it goes.
Playing from the white tees with a total yardage of 5845, par 71, 69.1 course rating and a 125 slope. Based upon my handicap of 18.9, I would be expected to get 19 strokes – so shooting a 90 would be a good score. Anything below that would be great. Of course, just being out playing golf is great in its own right, no matter what the score is. (All overhead imagery is from Google Maps or Google Earth.)
Hole #1: 345-yard par 4 – It’s 170 yards to the left bunker and 200 yards to clear it. Nothing in my bag is realistically expected to clear it. The fairway is wide at that point so it seems reasonable to hit my 3-wood well to the right of the bunker, which should go about 200 yards, leaving me with 145 yards to the center of the green. My 6-iron should make it to the center of the green (COG). A better or worse than average drive and I’ll adjust the club on my second shot accordingly. Two putts and even par.
Hole #2: 294-yard par 4 – The fairway is wide but there is out-of-bounds down the left where the townhomes are. The first bunker on the right goes from 150 to 170 yards out with a second one right behind it from 190 to 215 yards. My 3-iron travels about 170 but will tend to slice to the right towards the first bunker. My 4-wood travels 180 but is usually very reliable and straight and would leave me 104 yards to the center. My 3-wood tends to draw left and travels 200 yards but the out-of-bounds is left and the carry distance and total distance is unlikely to help me with the bunkers. I’ll choose the 4-wood and hit it towards the center of the fairway leaving me with a ¾ pitching wedge to the center of the green. Two putts and even par.
Hole #3: 460-yard par 5 – Need just 80 yards to get over the environmental area in front of the tee box and a bunker from 126 to 142 yards. Trees and houses line the left side and marsh lines the right though the fairway is pretty wide. The fairway ends at 261-yards with a hazard crossing. I believe I can hit my 3-wood 200 yards, leaving 260 to the green. I should be able to hit my 5-iron 155 yards and leave just 105 to the COG. A ¾ pitching wedge and two putts and still even par.
Hole #4: 397-yard par 4 – A long hole. The drive will determine if I want to play it like a par 5. It takes 130 to get over the water hazard and is 220 to the front of the first bunker on the left. My driver averages 210 yards so it seems worthwhile trying to get a little more yardage to cut down on the length of the second shot. A 210-yard drive still leaves 187 yards. My 4-wood off the grass averages 179 yards. If the drive is short, I’ll lay up on the second shot with a 5-iron and leave a short pitch to the green. It seems most likely that I’ll get on in three shots. Two putts for a bogey and one over par after four holes.
Hole #5: 475-yard par 5 – It’s 202-yards to the left bunker and 230 to carry it. Marsh down the right side could be a problem for a big slice. Seems like my 3-wood is the right choice for 200-yards and 275 yards left to the COG. It’s 189-yards from there to the left bunker and 200-yards to get past the water on the right. Laying up with a 4-iron or 5-iron for 155 to 165-yards will leave just 110 to 120-yards left, requiring a pitching wedge or possibly a 9-iron. Two putts and one over par.
Hole #6: 179-yard par 3 – A fairly straight forward par 3 with bunkers on the front left and right. A 4-wood off the tee should average 181-yards. Two putts and still one over after six.
Hole #7: 319-yard par 4 – New townhomes and out-of-bounds wide to the right. It’s 187 yards to the left bunkers and 216 to the right bunkers. A 200-yard 3-wood toward the right side of the fairway will leave just 119 yards to the COG. I’ll use a 9-iron if it’s a little longer than 119 and a pitching wedge if it’s a little less. Two putts for par and one over after seven.
Hole #8: 147-yard par 3 – Water down the right side and a bunker to the front left of the green. A 6-iron should get it to the COG. Two putts and one over.
Hole #9: 399-yard par 4 – Another par 4 that I may have to play like a par 5. Marsh on the left side runs the length of the hole. Bunkers on the right start at 183 yards and you need 220 in the air to carry them so they’re in play if I hit a 3-wood or driver. There is an environmental area crossing the fairway from 341 to 367-yards. A 200-yard 3-wood will leave 199 to the COG and a 4-wood for 179-yards should get it over the environmental crossing with just 12-yards to spare. Most likely I’ll still need to pitch or chip to the green. It seems like the driver off the tee is the way to go. The bunkers will still be in play. If I land in one of them or the drive is short then I’ll lay up in front of the crossing with 75 or so yards to the COG. Seems like a 2-putt bogey is the most likely scenario unless I get a great drive. Two over par would be a great front nine.
Hole #10: 350-yard par 4 – Marsh runs down the left side and a tree line down the right side. There is a stream crossing the fairway starting about 223 yards so there doesn’t seem to be any reason to hit a driver. A 3-wood to 200 yards leaves just 150 to the COG. Depending upon the drive and the pin placement, I’ll hit a 5-iron for 155-yards or a 6-iron for 143-yards. Two putts for par.
Hole #11: 325-yard par 4 – Need just 110-yards to clear the environmental area in front of the tee box. It’s 235-yards to the bunker on the left and a 3-wood to 200 takes that out of play. Trees are on both sides of the fairway but the width is pretty generous. A 200-yard drive leaves just 125 and a 9-iron to the COG. Two putts for par.
Hole #12: 382-yard par 4 – A large tree on the right side of the fairway at 125-yards means I’ll need to aim towards the left side of the fairway. It’s 171-yards to the bunker on the left and 202-yards to clear it so it’s in play unless I hit something less than a 3-wood. This may be another par 4 that I should play like a par 5 depending upon how it looks when I’m actually playing and how the drive does. If it looks fairly open, I should probably hit the driver to 210, leaving 172 to the COG, maybe less with a good drive. If I land in the trap, I play it like a par 5 and just get it out and hit an iron onto the green. If it looks narrow on the tee, I’ll play it like a par 5, hitting a 4-wood to 170-yards with 212 left. The bunker on the left starts at 156 yards so to take that out of play, I’ll hit a 5-iron about 155 yards to the right of the bunker towards the right side of the green and leave just 57-yards to the COG. A short chip and two putts for a bogey and three over after twelve.
Hole #13: 175-yard par 3 – No significant issues other than the distance. I’ll hit a 3-iron 170-yards to the front if the pin is up or a 4-wood 181-yards if it’s towards the back. Two putts for par.
Hole #14: 299-yard par 4 – A slight dogleg right with trees down the right side and potentially in play if you try to cut the corner. The first bunker on the left runs from 132 to 160 yards and the second bunker starts at 235-yards. Hit the 3-wood 200-yards and leave 99 to COG for a ¾ pitching wedge to clean up. Two putts for par.
Hole #15: 127-yard par 3 – Need 96-yards to clear the water in front and 115-yards to take the front right bunker out of play. The back of the green is 133 yards and there is a bunker and water behind it. If the pin is in the back, aim for the COG anyway. I’ll hit an 8-iron to 125-yards then two putt for par. The green and tee boxes are both pretty large so the actual distance could mean anything from 90 to 135 yards. Choose the club accordingly.
Hole #16: 475-yard par 5 – The bunker on the left starts at 210 yards so a 3-wood to 200 yards will take that out of play and leave 275 to the COG. From there, the bunkers on the right start at 182 yards. Hit a 5-iron 155 yards and leave just 120 to the COG. The “Pro Tip” on the website suggests there is a pond on the left side of the green, but I only see water behind the green on Google maps. Hit a 9-iron and two putt for par.
Hole #17: 170-yard par 3 – The tee box is built out over Shoal Creek and has artificial turf. It takes 155 yards to carry the hazard on a direct path to the green and 162-yards if I hit it a little left or right of the green. It’s 186 yards to the back of the green so the shot needs to be between 162 and 186 yards. Tough choice between a 3-iron that should go 170 yards though I’m not sure it will carry enough and a 4-wood that should go 181 yards. Don’t worry about the bunker on the left as it will help to keep you out of bigger trouble. The traps on the right probably aren’t going to be in play. I should go with the 4-wood as less than perfect contact should have the better outcome. Two putts for par.
Hole #18: 527-yard par 5 – A beautiful hole with the Choptank River down the left side all the way to the green. A large sand bunker along the river helps keep balls from getting in worse trouble. The fairway is pretty wide so hit the driver if it’s been controllable on the two previous times it was used. If not, which seems likely, then hit the 3-wood for 200 yards. From there, it’s 189 yards to the bunker outcrop on the left and 215 to clear it, and 254 yards to the bunker on the right. Hit the 4-wood for 170 yards towards the left edge of the right bunker. That leaves 157 to the COG. Hit the 5-iron 155 yards and two putt for a par.
When you write it down it seems pretty easy to shoot 3 over par 74 when you’re an 18.9 handicap and the USGA algorithm would expect a good score of 90. Not impossible, but then for me golf has never been about perfection but more about overcoming adversity and bouncing back after a bad shot or bad hole. The USGA is also telling me that I should expect those additional 16 shots because I am going to three-putt, probably several times, and I am going to land in sand and water and out-of-bounds. I’m thinking that having a plan will help because as I’m getting ready to strike the ball, I know that all I need to do is hit an average shot with the club in my hand to be successful. For my next round, wherever it may be, I’m going to plan ahead and see how it works out. I’ll let you know. Of course, if you’re playing the same course every time, this isn’t going to be particularly helpful, but if you’re planning on playing 100 new courses for the very first time, it just might be.
Other than the standard chipping and putting, and trying to figure out what my real carry distance is for each club, is there anything I can do to prepare for the round? Off the tee, I would have hit my 3-wood ten times, my 4-wood four times and my driver just three times. Off the fairway, I would have hit my 5-iron six times, my 9-iron four times, my 4-wood three times, a ¾ pitching wedge three times, and my 4 and 6-irons twice each. Perhaps I should take those clubs to the driving range the day before and get comfortable with them hitting just average shots.
First the bad news. As of today, there are still no golf courses in Maryland open for play. The closest to opening are those around Ocean City and southern Eastern Shore since those courses received the least amount of snow and ice and have had (slightly) warmer temperatures since then. A couple of them have indicated that with temperatures in the 40s in the next couple of days they expect to be open. Will keep you posted when I find out which ones are open for play. Stay tuned.
The good news. We’re adding video to our Course Previews/Reviews and have purchased a GoPro Hero 13 Black to start recording 4k video of Maryland golf courses. As many of you YouTube fans are aware, there are plenty of videos out there that already cover many of the higher priced courses and some courses have excellent websites with details, photos and drawings of every hole. Hopefully, We’ll be able to add value as we learn how to shoot great video and edit like the pros.
Well, as of today there are still no golf courses in Maryland that are open to the public due to the snow and ice, but there are a few on the Eastern Shore that are getting close – Glen Riddle and Great Hope are two of them. They suggest that early next week they may be capable of opening. In the meantime, in addition to hours of watching golf videos on YouTube, you may want to spend a little time reading The Royal and Ancient’s Pace of Play Manual. I’m (pretty) sure that I’m not the slowest golfer out there but there is plenty that I can improve upon. It’s here if you’d like to read it.
Pretty much all of Maryland is covered in a thick blanket of snow. Most years we can get away with at least a few courses playable, but not this month. The forecast suggests that melting is going to take awhile. In the meantime, there are several indoor driving range/simulators available throughout the state. See the list.
I had planned on going out on a new course today, but Mother Nature had other plans. It snowed yesterday, just enough to cover the ground and then froze solid overnight. I decided to treat myself to a Top Tracer practice round at the SPGC since I’m generally too cheap to buy a launch monitor. An hour on Top Tracer and a bucket of 80 balls cost $18. I ended up hitting half and three-quarter sand wedges, pitching wedge, 8-iron, 5-iron, 4-wood and driver. For some unknown reason, I am a worse ball striker on the range than I am on the golf course. Perhaps it’s hitting off the mats, getting tired from hitting that many shots in a short period of time or it could be that I subconsciously trying to squeeze just a little more distance out of a club since you get automatic feedback on the results. Whatever the reason, I don’t play to my 18.1 handicap when I go there.
If you haven’t done Top Tracer or used a launch monitor, it’s pretty sweet that they can pull that much data together each time you hit the ball. Top Tracer reports the carry distance, total distance, ball speed, launch angle, peak flight height, landing angle, hang time, how much the ball curved left or right and how offline the shot was. After each shot, you can look at the monitor in your bay to see the results, including a graphic, and while that is interesting, I find it much more helpful to look at the data collected on my phone after I get home and potentially comparing it with future practice sessions. If you want to do that, you need to download the Top Tracer app on your phone (before you go to the range) and set up an account, all of which is free. When you get to the range, you pay for Top Tracer in the pro shop and then scan the QR code in the bay to get it to sync with your account. In addition to SPCG, Top Tracer is also available at the Mountain Branch Golf Course in Joppa and the Pine Ridge Golf Course in Timonium. The app also allows the user to play several games that require you to hit a ball at specific targets, but I haven’t tried any of those yet. If you don’t have a launch monitor, you should try it. It will only cost you $18.
What were the big takeaways from the range session? First, it appears that about 95% of my wedge shots landed left of the target. That wasn’t something I had picked up during my last couple of rounds, but it does explain the number of greens that I’m missing. And now that I’m thinking about it, I was almost always chipping towards the pin from the left side. Until I can get back to the range and check my alignment, I’m going to start aiming toward the right side of the green to try to improve my greens in regulation. Second, there was a lot more consistency with my 4-wood off the deck than I’ve had in the past, and it was a little more than 10 yards longer than my 3-iron. I probably should pull that out on my second shot at the par 5s and maybe even on the tee shot on some of the tight, short par 4s. Lastly, my 5-iron was erratic at best, meaning my longer irons need some attention.
And no, I’m not getting anything from Top Tracer or the SPGC. Clayt
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