The Heat (The Humidity)

Maybe I'm getting old.

Maybe it's that my back and shoulders don't loosen up as easily when it's cool out.  Maybe I'm like a Dominican pitcher who only gets going when the summer weather rolls in.

Just call me Pedro.

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For some reason, I play my best golf in July.  There's really no question about it.  See the chart on the right side -- I'm almost a full 2 shots better on average in July as compared to any other month.  I seem to have a "hot streak" almost every year in July when I feel like even par is legitimately in play almost every time I take to the course.  In 2009 I whipped off 78-77-75-74 over an 8 day span; in 2010 I had rounds of 75, 76, 77, 78 and 79.  And almost every one of those rounds has been played (at least as far as I remember) in sweltering heat.

The past 2 days have been 85-95 degrees and very humid in the Boston area.  And I'm +8 over 36 holes during that time span.  Yesterday, at Butter Brook, I shot 73.

Yes, that's right, +1.

I don't want to go through the hole round blow-by-blow, but thinking back on it there were a few key shots:

2ND HOLE, 1ST PUTT  After making bogey on the 1st, I hit 5 iron to the middle of the fairway and 8-iron to pin-high about 18 feet from the hole.  I putted that one a good 15 feet past, and missed the come-back for a dreaded 3-putt.  Grrrrrrrrr. (+2 for the round)

4TH HOLE, APPROACH SHOT  After hitting the right side of the fairway on the dogleg left, I pulled a 6-iron into the greenside bunker, leaving myself short-sided with a bad lie in the sand.  I got out of the trap but had an impossible putt (from the top of a ridge about 25 feet across the green with the cup about 3/4 of the way down a hill.  And... I hate 3-putts!!!  (+4 for the round)

8TH HOLE, TEE SHOT  The par-3 was playing at about 165 yards with the pin in front, slightly down wind.  I hit 7-iron directly at the stick; it landed about 6 inches in front, bounced and then spun just a bit to the side, 3 inches from the hole.  There were 2 members of the grounds crew up watering the green at the time; both said they couldn't believe it didn't go in.  Closest I've ever been to an ace.  (It turned out, by the way, that the two on the green were, in fact, the owners.)  (+2 for the round)

16TH HOLE, 2ND SHOT  After reeling off 10 straight holes at par or better (-2 over that stretch), I had just made a bogey on the difficult par-4 15th and stood at +3 on the 16th tee.  The odds were against me, but eagle on the par-5 16th (which I'd managed before) would go a long way.  My drive, unfortunately, did not go a long way -- only about 225 yards, but in the middle of the fairway.  According to my GPS I had 277 to go, which meant I didn't have enough club unless I got a real favorable roll out.  I went with 1-hybrid because the trajectory would be low and I usually do get a lot of top spin; maybe -- just maybe -- it would get me home or close to where I could chip in.  I told myself to stay smooth, don't overswing (because that almost always gets me to snap-hook with my hybrids)... and I pured it.  I watched at it sailed down the right side and caught the slope from there and ran toward the green.  From my position on the fairway it looked pretty good, but I couldn't tell for sure if it got home or not.

It was home.  3 feet from the pin.  Tap in eagle.  (+1 for the round)

I needed to get up and down
from 82 yards in a bunker.

18TH HOLE, PUTT  I made a fairway-green-2-putt par on 17, which meant it would take birdie on the 18th to get to even par.  I do not play the 18th hole at Butter Brook well (average 0.9 strokes over par, with 4 double-bogies or worse in 17 prior rounds from the black tees).  To make matters worse, my tee ball settled in the fairway bunker about 85 yards out on the right side.  I hit about as good a shot as I could from there, pitching wedge to the middle of the green, 22 feet from the hole (I paced it off).  The putt was a double breaker -- slightly uphill and left-to-right over the first two thirds, and then just downhill and right to left over the last 6 or 7 feet.  I picked a line that was starting about 6 inches left of the hole... and that's almost exactly where it ended up, 6 inches left.  Oh well.  +1.  (Shot efficiency 0.930, my personal best.)

This was the putt left for even par.

Hopefully I won't have to wait until next July to come that close again.

The On Course Apps

I am, by nature, an analytical person.  I create Excel spreadsheets for everything.  On the golf course, that also means that I want to know all the little things before I take a shot -- which way is the wind blowing, where does the ball funnel on the green ahead, and, of course, what's my yardage to the hole?

But "about 150 yards" won't do for me.  I want to know if it's 147 or 153.  Does that finite level of detail really make a difference?  Probably not -- hitting an "about 150 yards" shot will do just fine in either case.  But mentally I feel better if I know the exact number, and feeling good about the shot is definitely the first step to execution.

When you want to know the exact numbers these days there are basically 3 options: (1) hire Steve Williams to carry your bag, (2) get a laser rangefinder, or (3) get a GPS.

It turns out Stevie doesn't come cheap (though lately he has some free time on his hands).  So the question ultimately comes down to rangefinder vs. GPS.  There are pluses and minuses to both -- rangefinders are more precise, but you are limited to targets you can actually see; GPS's can give you a hole overlay and allow you to measure distances to a variety of spots on the course quickly, but ultimately operate on more of a "plus or minus a few yards" basis.

Because of the convenience of having an iPhone, I ultimately decided on a GPS system a few years ago.  After a great deal of research (and a good recommendation from my brother), I started using the Golfshot app 2 years ago, and honestly, I can't recommend it enough.  Here are the features I like about it:

Hole Overlays  It's quite difficult to play a course you've never seen before unless you have a map; Golfshot gives you a crystal clear aerial view of every hole so you can see where you're going.  Plus, because you can choose any spot on the hole as your target for distance measurement (just by touching it on the map) it allows you to really know if you can cut that corner or carry that sand trap.

Automated Measurements  In addition to user defined targets, almost every point of interest (hazards, obstacles, doglegs, etc) are defined and measured on the "main" screen.  It also gives you the front, back and middle of the green distances.

Scoring and Stat Tracking  I never use a scorecard anymore because I can easily and quickly keep my score as I go with Golfshot.  It also automatically keeps tracks of my statistics -- fairways, greens in regulation, scrambling, sand saves, putts/hole and putts/green in regulation.  Both on the native application on the phone and on their website you can view your past rounds and scorecards, and you can customize date ranges for your statistics to see how your game is changing.  Here's a snapshot of my last 20 rounds:

35,000 Courses  There are over 35,000 courses in the database with visual overlays and GPS distances -- that means essentially every course in North America, and then some.  The aerial images are updated almost constantly (or at least it seems that way) so I don't think I've ever been looking at an out-of-date measurement.  And unlike many other GPS systems, you don't have to pay to download more courses, and there are no annual fees.  You get everything for just a $30 one-time fee.  It's pretty incredible.

The bigger question, of course, is does all this help?  Obviously it's not the only factor in these calculations, but since I started using Golfshot on 9/2/09 my fairway percentage has gone up from 42.7% to 44.8%, and my greens-in-regulation have increased from 38.5% to 39.2%.  Plus it's the envy of almost every one I play with -- and maybe that gives me an edge, too.

Screen Shots:

[Many thanks to reader Neil who suggested this as a topic for a post!]
[And no, I'm not affiliated with golfshot.com in any way.]