I like gadgets and reading up on cool golf stuff so in June 2017 I bought Arccos 360 which gives me all the stats and info I need and dont need about my golf. First it was just a cool way to keep some statistics of my game but quickly realized its a training aid.

I’ve hovered around in single handicap for 20 years or so but my game would be very sporadic with a few low 70 rounds a year but also plenty of 90’s to mix it up. I wanted to change and found a really cool podcast series and website founded by Cordie Walker called Golf Science Lab which opened my eyes quite a bit about how I was practicing. This led to discovering other resources such as books from team at Vision54  and similar. I dont mind what my swing looks like so not interested in getting bunch of lessons but I have gotten a couple of lessons when I got stuck. The best swing coaching I could get was to just read and listen to the concepts of the Strike Plan from Adam Young and then my favorite website SecretGolf.com as these are not about how you swing or what you should to but about ideas about striking the ball and embracing that we have have different swings.

I dont go to the range to hit balls , I go and play games. Work on techique for 10 min or so then I play different games that challenge me to hit the shape I want and to the target I want. It’s a huge difference in my confidence on the course to know how to hit the high fade, low draw, punched 9 iron to 90 yds. I try to play rounds with half sets now and then and when I play alone I often play worst ball where I hit 2 balls and hit my next shot from the worst spot. Best score in worst ball is a 37 and has been magic on my short game.

Here is what my approach game looked like in second half of 2017 vs second half of 2018. I’ve put in work on sharpening my irons, taking enough club, understanding where trouble is and just in general apply more strategy into my game. Knowing I can hit different shots and trust them gives me more confidence in making strategic decisions to take out one side of a green or knowing that I can hit this as hard as I want and I wont fly the green but just about guarantees I am putting. Biggest tactically change is to try and always think of back of green yardage in choosing a club.

Enter SkyTrak — three months ago i bought a Skytrak simulator as I was spending more an more time in Trakman studios and on range. I haven’t had it long but I think its doing something to my game. My last 10 rounds before the HCP lock down here in Pacific Northwest are promising and my winter rounds so far have been pretty nice with multiple rounds just a few shots over par.  Shot 2 over yesterday – 6 FW hits, 12 GIR, 33 puts and 3 lost balls. Iron play was really good. I dont use Arccos in winter so last round on that was in November but here is the approach stats for just the last 10 rounds.

Finally here are my 2018 Arccos Golf HCP trends. GHIN handicap moved from 6.2 to 7.1 and ended at 5.0. Should perhaps mention that I did change my clubs in beginning of 2018 from Titleist AP2 to MB so took a little time to get used to not having the same forgiveness but puts a smile on my face every time I look down on the club sitting behind the ball.

/Brjann

I got myself a new driver and I am seeing myself being in 2nd shot from 60–100 yds range more often. My game has been lot of wayward drives and relying on up and downs for scoring. This new thing is showing great progress but the biggest reason is really that i feel very comfortable relying on a fade. Big miss is manageable and the hits go really far. I really need to get my distances dialed in on 60-100 yds!

My trust in the fade off the tee got me thinking of why not go back to my fade with irons as well. Just spent good part of a year trying to get consistency with a draw. Fee weeks ago i put my Titleist MB 4 iron back in the bag and from tee i can really hit that long draw but off fw i just cant – the fade is so much easier,

I had an hour on the range yesterday hitting only fades with all clubs and played 18 shooting 74, low score of the year breaking all of Hank Haynes rules for no 3 putts, no penalties and no 2 chips.

My confidence in iron shots and drive is really high and I’m excited to get s few more range sessions and rounds fading the ball.

Driver is an Epic SZ 10.5′ that i ordered with project x hzrdus black but came with s hzrdus yellow and Callaway gave me option to testing it for 30 days. So far its good but will try to find a black to test as the fade swing is pretty aggressive and perhaps not suited for the backweighted yellow.

More to come of my quest for the consitent fade and som putting practice.

B

It’s been a up and down few weeks as expected but making some progress as I really focus on feel at impact. Dont care what swing looks like and turns out i have flattened and shortened it to gain strike consistency.

I’ve always been pretty agressive which has more and more meant i have tendency to really go fly fishing and get both outside in path and a closed club head … lets say left is my main miss.

Putting a towel an inch behind ball and other drill with headcover on outside in path to find a good path and strike is helping – i know how to adjust to get the club square but need way more consistency with practice.

Another drill I like is put an alignment stick in ground 10-15 feet in front just barely left of target and practice that butter cut – makes me really pay attention to clubpath and clubhead. Have to buy some pool noodles to put in alignment stick so i dont get pierced by one when i miss and hit it… hurts like hell when it recoils back and hits you

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I deciced to get a new driver. Got a fitting setup and found setup with Rogue Sub Zero but just didnt feel ok. Went back a day later played around with weights and just didnt feel it. Tried a Ping G400 Max and fitter a couple of daya later and fitter says I cant sell you a new driver after J took out my own and compared. So still with my XR 16 Pro and XStiff Diamana Ahina shaft which is way too much for me as swingspeed has come down almost 10 mph with weight gain… Good news is the Strike Plan work flattening the swing has made me believe in my driver and i am just over 50% fw hit and getting my length back to averaging a 245-250 carry.

Work continues and i have also switched back to old faithful Nr 7 putter and feel i will get closer to 1.8 putts on GIR.just over 2 today.

Haven’t done much on this blog in the last three years but I’ve found something really fun that takes some of the cool stuff from work with golf. In last 3 years I’ve manged to really take my golf game to the next level with a lot of deliberate and focused practice. Its been a steady improvement but I still have ways to go to a steady very low single digit hcp. I’ve really tried to change my approach and attitude as I can be quite angry at my self on the course. Family and friends know what I’m talking about – sorry you get to see that but I am working on it. I’ve been inspired by the excellent Vision54 approach and books by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriot as well as really great podcast series from Golf Science Lab hosted by Cordie Walker. Lately I have also discovered Steve Elkingtons website and video series at Secretgolf.com which focus on all parts of the game and I find it most interesting because they present a lot of different ways to think and swing. There is no swing or approach that works for all

Never been a golfer that takes a bunch of lessons as I think my swing is just that – my swing – but I did find this place with a bunch of technology such as Trackman and videos so I tried that out this winter and did get some great things to work on for consistency. Golf Science Lab podcasts are a really entertaining way for golfers t

I work in a customer success team at Microsoft where we deliver an enterprise identity and security cloud service and this has lead me to the need to learn a whole set of new things about using data, doing things differently and approaching things with an open mind and not be afraid to experiment.

So what’s this all about?

First of all Pia and Lynns vision and approach to optimal performance inspires all of us to aspire for greatness with simple and clear tools. I often find myself approaching tasks and projects at work thinking of little things I write down from their book Every Shot Must Have A Purpose , such as how Think Box – Play Box really makes sense in many ways.

Cordie Walker from Golf Science Lab tweeted about this thing called Arccos Golf that was powered by the Microsoft cloud … i had to read about it and realized that this is something I have to try. Have been using apps on my phone to try and track my golf or take notes about shots and performance but it all just fails as there is too much work. That it runs in the Microsoft cloud is an added fun thing as I use the same engines and service every day to crunch data and make decisions. I would of course love to see that Arccos adopts our Azure AD service for their login services but that’s another post. Arccos Golf is so easy – screw in the sensors, pair with the app and just play as you always have.

Arccos Golf – first impressions

I’ve played five rounds with Arccos and right now I am really satisfied and feel that this will improve my golf game. First off I went into the season with goal to work on my weakest part of my game so spent lot of time putting and chipping. First two rounds showed me something that I hadn’t identified. My putting is just fine but approaches are just not giving me the chances I need.

This insight and data helps in focusing in on how to practice.

During play with Arccos I dont have to do anything special to tell the system which club I’m hitting but occasionally I have to edit number of putts or location of the flag or distance on first putt to ensure that my data is more accurate. This is easy to do in the app on the phone or afterwards using the new dashboard site on Arccosgolf.com. In five rounds I have had one shot that wasnt detected but the app really made it really straightforward to adjust.

If there is something I would complain about it is the GPS function during play doesn’t have the full feature set like GolfLogix or GolfShot. Arccos is a simple GPS allowing me to check distances by touching locations on the screen.

There are small improvements here and there that ArccosGolf can do in the app and website but overall I’m really impressed by accuracy and of course by the data that I now see as information that I use to influence how I practice and eventually strategize my game.

Will post again after trying the caddie function.

/Brjann