How to close it out even when you are between clubs
72nd hole. It’s all on the line. Par and you are in, with 8 guaranteed starts on the web.com Tour (36% of the season as a fully-exempt member), bogey and you are back on the Mackenzie Tour in 2017. How do you execute your approach shot when you have choices to make re club selection?
“Attitude would always win out over ability.” - Dr. Bob Rotella, Golf is Not a Game of Perfect
Player: Paul Barjon Tournament: web.com Tour Q School Finals (December, 2016) Course: Crooked Cat at Orange County National, Winter Garden, FL Round: 4, 72nd hole Position at 18 tee: T42 (-3) Goal: Top 45 & Ties earn 8 guaranteed starts (36% of the season), earn opportunity to play your way to fully-exempt status, earn opportunity to earn a PGA TOUR card for 2018
Situation: 72nd/18th hole (#9, we started on the back), par 4, 400 yds, sharp dogleg left, narrow fairway landing area (left to right). Waste area and fescue run the entire length of the left side of the hole, in a valley, 20 yards below the hole’s elevation. Bunkers all along the right border of the fairway.
Weather is still cool (65 F, SE 5-7 MPH wind L-R off tee, straight in on approach shot), no rain.
Summary: Paul is -6 for the round - one of the best scores of the day - and is inside the line to earn guaranteed starts through the first two reshuffles of the 2017 web.com Tour season. We just bogeyed the prior hole, after some indecision/lack of commitment on a 5i club selection to a 215 yard target on #8, par 3.
Tee shot: Paul selects a 2i off the tee (same as practice round earlier this week on this hole). Due to the bogey, Paul is last to tee off. Both playing competitors choose similar clubs re target distance and both put their balls in the right side of the fairway.
Paul hits his tee shot to center cut of the fairway. He is closest to the hole and will be last to play an approach shot.
Approach Shot: We determine we have 103 yards to the front of the green. Pin is cut 7 on, so 110 to the hole. Wind is into at about 5+ MPH. There’s a steep backboard we can hit into, where the ball will roll back to the hole, or at least not run up onto the top shelf.
Target landing area for the approach shot, given the conditions, is a carry of 118, dead into a light wind, on a cool day.
For Paul this is either a full 50 degree wedge, or a small pitching wedge (we call that a chip wedge when Paul wants a low ball flight, and a 3/4 wedge when he wants a normal ball flight but less power).
As the caddie, I like a chip PW here - that shot forces Paul to swing less, and concentrate hard on his chosen ball flight. I find that kind of shot helpful to Paul when he is managing his emotions (we had a chip 8i on the back 9 during Paul’s Freedom 55 Tour Championship win a couple of months earlier on the Mackenzie Tour, and it was helpful in getting Paul’s emotions under control to help him hit his best shots to close out his first pro win). That kind of shot requires focus on impact, almost forgetting about the target, and almost forgetting about trying to hit it hard, normal, or light.
We discuss it a bit and Paul pulls out the PW. He likes a full 50 here, but takes a couple of practice swings with the PW. He looks up one more time, then backs off, and pulls the 50.
Paul looks at me and says, “I like the 50.” I smile and say, “OK!”. Then, while looking right at me, he says, “Let’s do it!”. Paul then approaches the ball, goes through his full shot routine, hits a full 50 degree wedge, and it lands pretty much exactly at 118, behind the pin and just right of it, as planned. Excellent execution.
This is the crux of why Paul succeeded in this situation: He thought about his options, considered the conditions, trusted himself to hit the club and shot he thought was correct for this situation, then committed to hitting that shot. Even when he started out with a different idea based on the conditions.
Paul’s attitude was full commitment to his decision. I could see it in his body language. His attitude toward this shot created an opportunity for excellent execution.
We have all seen pros waffle over a shot. We’ve heard the announcers talk about being committed to the shot. But what does that exactly mean?
It means that you accept that the result will only teach you something if you hit the shot as best you could. If you don’t hit the shot with commitment, you will have no idea whether or not you made the right decision ahead of the shot. You have to test your decision-making to learn, and you do that by committing to your decisions.
When people say, “it’s the process that’s important”, this is what they are talking about. Each iteration - assess, decide, execute, review - adds to your life-long body of work. If you don’t commit to your decision, that one iteration has to be thrown out. Nothing learned.
When you do commit, you have full information to review, and the result is accepted as the best possible, even if there’s a bad bounce or a good one.
“I feel good about the shot I hit in there.”
“I feel good about our decision-making out there.”
“I think it was a mistake, in hindsight, because of condition X - that called for a different shot.”
All those quotes we hear from players, all the time, are quotes that describe their learning by committing.
Paul gives me a big smile and starts walking to the green. I replace the divot, clean the wedge, and walk up to the green.
The putt: Paul has 2 putts from about 20 feet, to take the next step in his career.
Sometimes, Paul asks me to read the putt and tell him what I think. Sometimes, he sees the line and speed all the way, and I stand by knowing he doesn’t want to talk about the putt he is envisioning. This time it was the latter.
Paul read the putt, lined it up, made a good stroke to hit the putt he wanted, and the putt rolled to about 2 feet. Almost a tap in. He marks, the other players putt out, and Paul lines up the 2 footer. Center of the hole. He’s done it. Paul has earned exempt status through the first 8 tournaments on the web.com Tour, another dream achieved in his young touring career. And a lot of information processed as part of his own process of learning.
Feedback? Send me a tweet: @RobBoyko
Follow Paul’s scores - on the PGA TOUR app or on pgatour.com - when he tees it up at the Great Exuma Classic, Jan 8-11, the first event of the 2017 web.com Tour.