Brian Quackenbush Golf

I completed my first round of the Tarheel Tour event at Rocky River GC today…the final 17 holes that were begun yesterday morning. I hit it generally well, but 3 wedges really cost me. Two were very well struck, but landed about 10 feet too long right over the flag. Both cost me bogey. The other wasn’t as good and cost me my third bogey on the round. That’s a two to three shot swing had I gotten a bit luckier with how far they flew. So, I finished one under with a cool putter and some bad luck with those wedge shots.

I’m encouraged by how I hit it…again it’s better most of the time, but not there yet all the time. I feel like it’s on the verge of solidifying itself. I just have to be patient with the swing changes.

The yardage books were a moderate success. About 50 were sold. The threshold to make it worthwhile is 40, so expect them at the rest of the events this season…assuming the local professionals are cooperative. Comments were generally positive. Most of the constructive criticisms were things I thought about when I first saw the finished books. For example, the diagrams and print need to be larger to be more legible. The landing areas could have less detail and should focus more on the primary landing areas. The green feature yardages need to be more specific. I consider the first book a success and expect the next books to be substantial improvements.

For the second straight week, the Tarheel Tour event is shortened to 36 holes due to rain. I played one hole at Rocky River GC this morning before we were called off the course at 9:30. We tried to restart at 1:00 and 2:00, but there were a few areas of the course that were still unplayable. We will restart the round tomorrow morning at 8:30 and play the second and final round on Thursday.

Fellow Tarheel Tour player, Ben Case, and I produced our first Yardage Book for this week’s event at Rocky River GC. Here are links to a few sample images:

3 Long
3 Short

They’re modeled after the books you get at PGA Tour events. This is very much unlike the typical “prettified” yardage book normally sold at courses. This book is black and white with a lot of numbers…carry distances from the tee, re-lasered front-of-green yardages from virtually every sprinkler head, green depths to relevant slopes and green cuts, etc. Basically, about every piece of information you could ever want to calculate yardage for a shot.

If you’re playing in this week’s event and want one, get in touch with me through any of the ways on my contact page.

I was very impressed with the final product, although there are a few things we can improve on our next book. This was a lot of hard work to produce. We spent almost 10 hours at the course last week and then about 8 hours finishing it before handing it off to kinkos. We don’t expect to make a lot of money from our efforts…we’re selling them for $10 which is $5 less than what you pay on the Hooters Tour (for what I believe is a comparable booK). I think the price reflects the lower cost to play the Tarheel Tour and also helps to build support for our books. The primary benefit is that we spend so much time analyzing a course that we know it as well as possible.

I’ve played two events since my last update…the TarHeel Tour event at Charlotte National GC and a Nationwide Tour Monday qualifier in Chattanooga.

In the Tarheel Tour event, I finished 35th with rounds of 73-69. I wasn’t hitting it very well either round, but I held both together to essentially make the cut on the number. Since the first round was cancelled, the event was paid based on the last two rounds. I also finished second in the second-day shootout. The Shootout is a single-round event which is open to anybody falling outside the projected cut after the first round. It’s a small entry fee opportunity to make a little money if you had an off first round.

One aspect of my game that I was very happy with was my putting. This really held together a second round where I was hitting it all over the map. In particular, I made clutch putts over the last few holes. I made a small technical change last week that is helping me to control the force and direction of my stroke through and past impact.

Unfortunately, it was a very small payday because of a flaw in how most mini tour events are run. The players who finish the worst out of those who make the cut have to split money between too many players. For example, in a typical 120 player Tarheel Tour event, the top 38 and ties make the cut. If 43 players make the cut and there is a 6-way tie for 38th, those 6 players split 38th place money. So, the 37th place player may make about $600 while the 6 tied for 38th will make about $100. In a PGA or Nationwide Tour event, money would be added so there wasn’t such a sharp difference between players who finish last and “almost-last”.

I definitely understand the finances behind this policy…there simply isn’t any money to be added to a mini-tour purse to make the payout among the last place finishers equitable. In a typical event, I don’t really have a problem with the policy because the players who make the cut and finish last are generally the guys who give up on a round and shoot a million. In this case, I think it’s an appropriate “penalty” for giving up. However, when an event is shortened to two rounds with no final round after the cut, there isn’t an opportunity for players differentiate themselves by giving up on a round. In this type of situation, I think the payout should be adjusted among the lower-place finishers so there isn’t such an enormous difference between those who make the cut on the number and those who play one shot better over the two rounds.

There are dozens of “common sense” things like this you run into on the mini tours that will probably never be addressed. The fact is that the tours are usually run by one or two people who put in a lot of personal time and effort to make these events work. The organizers do an exceptional job given the resources they have to work with. Unfortunately, the little details such as last-place payouts often just aren’t a priority.

So, on to Chattanooga. I took my new toys, the Bushnell Pinseeker 1500 Laser Rangefinder with Slope and Eyeline Golf Green Reading Level, with me to the practice round. The Bushnell performed as expected. The Green Reading Level was a bit touchy because the greens had been freshly punched (more on this below) and it was difficult to find a flat spot to lay the level. It took a bunch of wiggling and averaging to get a good feel for where the fall lines were. However, in the end the level provided some exceptionally accurate and useful information. I absolutely knew where the fall line was on all 18 holes. This made it very easy to read the green and commit to my read. I had one of the better putting days I’ve had in a while because of the added confidence in my reads.

Unfortunately, I missed making the playoff by two shots. My ball striking wasn’t exactly where I wanted it to be, but I was holding it together with my putting. A late-round double bogey knocked me off track but I still had a chance with 3 holes to go. I hit one to 3 feet on 16 and had the putt bounce left and lip out. Then, I birdied 17 before just missing birdie on the final hole. Despite missing the qualifier, I am very happy and excited about my putting and the usefulness of the Green Reading Level.

As I mentioned above, the greens at Bear Trace GC were freshly punched over the last two weeks. This has happened before in Monday qualifiers and is grossly unacceptable. I can’t understand how the local PGA section can fall flat on their face in coordinating this with the golf course. When scheduling the event, a simple question - “do you expect to punch the greens within one month of the event?” - would make sure this never happens. Courses know well in advance their maintenance schedules. If a course absolutely has to punch the greens within a month of the event, then hold the event at another course. It’s ridiculous to hold an $350 entry-fee event with so much at stake on greens that putt like the Plinko maching from the “Price is Right”.

Someone I played a practice round with in Knoxville made a great point. Either require that the PGA sections do an exceptional job of holding the qualifiers or take it away and let the PGA Tour do it. Personally, I don’t think the different local sections will ever be able to conduct an event uniformly well across all parts of the country. There are just too many variables in personnel and course setup philosophy. The PGA Tour, however, would probably do a good job at selecting courses and running events uniformly well throughout the season.

I’ve got a few days off before I head back to Charlotte next week for another TarHeel Tour event at Rocky River GC. This is good because I have a muscle strain in my chest that I need to rest for a day or two.

This is what happens on a rainy day…you sit in your hotel room for a while and then your wallet starts to itch. I picked up a Bushnell Pinseeker 1500 Laser Rangefinder with Slope and an Eyeline Golf Green Reading Level.

The rangefinder is Bushnell’s latest product that hits targets much easier and adds a slope feature that tells you the inclination/declination of your shot in percent grade and yards. I’ve borrowed one for a few shots recently and I can tell you its well worth the money for learning a golf course. There’s a pretty accurate formula built into the rangefinder that automatically adjusts the yardage for a given slope.

The Green Reading Level is a cool little gadget that operates on the same principle as a carpenter’s level. It’s round and flat (about the size of a CD) with the “bubble level” in a dome on the center of the disc. You lay it flat on the green and the bubble moves to the high side of the disc. So, you can easily find the low side of an area of a green by following the built-in gridlines to the opposite side of the disc. It also has indicator marks to show you how much slope is in the green by how far the bubble moves toward the edge of the disc. For me, I expect this to be an invaluable tool. Most of the greens at my events are pre-marked for hole locations. So, I can very specifically find the fall line for a known hole location. This makes it much easier to commit to my reads.

Eyeline Golf actually seems to have a bunch of really effective training aids. If you check out the Green Reading Level, be sure to check out the other products they have on their website.

I expect to get both products by the end of the week to put in play in the Chattanooga Nationwide qualifier. They should help a lot, especially given the hilly terrain around Chattanooga.

Oh - I cleaned up and added a few interesting websites on the links page.

Just got the update…the first round of the TarHeel Tour event at Charlotte National GC has been cancelled. Tropical Storm Alberto put too much water on the course. The event will be shortened to two rounds beginning tomorrow.

I shot 68 (4 under par) at the Nationwide qualifier in Knoxville Monday and missed the playoff by…3 shots! Yes, the course played easy…the greens and fairways were perfect and about 6 hole locations were different (easier) than normal. But, the qualifying score went down 2 shots over the last two years. This was a surprise. I knew coming up 18 that I needed eagle to get to 6 under par and I thought that would get me into a playoff. I didn’t think the number would go to 7 under par. But, I didn’t make eagle (though I hit a great second shot on the par 5), so it didn’t matter. Just surprising that scores were that low. At the other qualifier course, 4 under made it through without a playoff.

I’m in Charlotte this week playing the TarHeel Tour at Charlotte National GC. Tropical Storm Alberto has already delayed starting times until at least noon and I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire day is washed out.

Charlotte National GC is always a pleasant surprise. They spend their money where it counts. The greens are always in good condition and this year they’re extremely good. The fairways and rough this year are also better than normal. Once you get past the run-down trailer that serves as the pro shop and clubhouse, I think this is one of the better tests we play all year. The layout is challenging and conditions are good…what more can you ask for?

Round 3 on the TarHeel Tour at River Run ended exactly like rounds 1 and 2. For the first time in my professional career, I shot the same score in each of the first three rounds of an event. I wish it could have been 3 lower scores instead of 72’s.

I was paired in a twosome at 7:30…the first time of the day. We finished in just under 3 hours without rushing any shots. It was perfect…nobody in front of us, nobody pushing us and the greens rolled as well as they could at River Run. I still didn’t make a lot, but continued to stroke and strike it well. In the end, I moved up about 10 spots on the leaderboard to finish in 26th place. Scores were about 2 shots higher today. I would guess this was due to some wind that started to kick up on our last 3 holes. Playing so quickly as the first group was probably an advantage in that we avoided any wind or weather that the rest of the field had to deal with.

My schedule is clear until June 12th and my next Nationwide qualifier. I plan to take a few days to relax and then continue working on my swing changes.

Round two today at the TarHeel Tour event at River Run CC included an interesting ruling. It also provided another opportunity for the TarHeel Tour and Tour Director Paul Wortham to impress me with their professionalism.

Here’s the situation. On the 7th hole (our 16th of the day), my playing partner was walking to his approach shot about 100 yards from the hole. He grabbed his wedge and putter and asked me if I would take the cart to the green so he could walk up. I took the cart up and watched with the third member of our group as he hit a great shot to one foot behind the hole.

The other member of our threesome was getting ready to putt, so in the interest of pace of play, I marked the one foot approach shot and placed his ball on the fringe. It became my turn to putt and I was ready to make my stroke when I saw a ball approaching the hole from the left. My playing partner who I marked the ball for didn’t realize that I had marked his ball a foot from the hole and had hit his stroke from where I placed the ball on the fringe. I told him that his marker was actually next to the hole and apologized. He made the putt and we decided to wait until after the round to resolve the matter.

His situation was resolved very quickly. A Decision on the Rules - 15-3b/3 - states that if a player doesn’t realize that his fellow competitor marked his ball and strokes his putt from where his competitor left his ball, the player doesn’t incur a penalty if it is rectified before the end of the hole. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s how it worked out for my playing partner. No penalty strokes - which is good.

But, there was a question about whether I incurred a stroke penalty for marking his ball without authority. In fact, I had done it on the previous hole as well when he blasted out of a deep greenside bunker and was going to require some time to rake it. I marked his ball in the interest of pace of play because our third was ready to putt. So, if I incurred a penalty, it would be one for each of these two holes. This would have placed me outside the cut line by one shot.

I believed that the one stroke penalty only applied to match play and asked Paul Wortham, the Tour Director, if we could seek a second opinion on the ruling. He agreed and we both confirmed that the penalty only applied to match play. My thanks to Clyde Luther, the most knowledgeable Rules authority I know, for his assistance with the interpretation of the rules.

So, I didn’t incur any penalty strokes and made the cut on the number. In fact, when my score counted at even par 144, it moved the cut from 145 to 144 bumping about 12 guys outside the cut line. Sorry about that!

As far as the golf, I started off hot and then cooled off in the middle of the round. I actually made birdie on the 7th hole - the one with all the controversy - to get back to even for the tournament and make the cut. I’m hitting it better because I broke my lesson with Jack Lumpkin apart into two components. I’m working on the first for now and will integrate shortening the swing once I feel good about increasing my backswing shoulder turn. My putting still feels great…just need a few to roll well tomorrow.