Brian Quackenbush Golf

I finished 13th this week in the Tarheel Tour’s event at Oldfield Golf Club in Bluffton, SC. It was a decent week, but just didn’t have much spark. I hit it and putted it well but had trouble getting on a roll. I felt like it could have been much better. I’m very encouraged by how my game is progressing.

The event was one of four walking events on the Tarheel Tour this year. For me, it was a great way to warmup my walking legs for the coming Nationwide Tour qualifiers. Four days in a row walking has not been the norm for me over the last two years. I was a bit sore after the practice round, but after that had no problems.

The tour needs to figure out how to get the pace of play moving in these walking events. One of the things players appreciate about this tour is the historically great pace of play. This week, however, was slower than normal. It was faster for the second round when we teed off in the morning.

One of the other things that players note about this tour is the quality of conditioning of the courses they play. Unfortunately, I feel like the three events I’ve played so far have been below Tarheel standards for their greens. For some reason, Rivertowne and Oldfield’s greens were very sparse. They were quick, but there simply wasn’t enough turf coverage on the greens so the ball was wobbling quite a bit. Last year (played in the early spring as well) these courses were immaculate…perhaps the best conditioned greens we played all season. So, for some reason these two lost a lot of their quality this year. Old South had better turf coverage on their greens, but they were very slow. I’m sure the rest of the courses will be better.

I head up to the Tarheel Tour’s event next week in Davidson, NC at River Run Golf Club.

I played my final “off-season” event in Florida this week at PGA National Estates course in West Palm Beach. This was a two-day “major” on the Minor League Golf Tour. As I mentioned in previous emails, these guys do a great job for a small mini tour. They “get” the fact that mini tours are, for 99% of the golfers who play them, a losing proposition. For most players, they’re a way to improve to the point where you’re ready to play on the next level - PGA or Nationwide. For a few players, they’re simply a way to stay competitive between opportunities to play on the next level. Regardless, financially savvy players should be looking to minimize their losses in mini tour events. This tour, by charging lower entry fees and paying out half the field (with less money at the top), enables players to minimize their losses more effectively.

Back to the event… It was incredibly windy the last two days - around 20mph sustained each day. This made it difficult for me to maintain trust in my swing changes. Consequently, I made more poor swings than I have in recent weeks.

My strategy also failed to pay dividends this week. When I mapped out the course each morning based on the strength and direction of the wind, I knew which holes would offer opportunities to get aggressive and which holes were “good pars”. In particular, the 5th, 6th, 15th and 17th were playing significantly downwind. On the first day, I hit it in the lake on the 5th and 16th with drives that were just slightly off my target. I simply misjudged the wind and that cost me about 4 shots. I also tried to drive the 6th, a shortish par 4, and misjudged the wind there as well. That cost me a bogey on a relatively short hole. Today, I played those holes better (2 under), but hit a poor drive on the 17th when I was going for the par 4 with my drive. Overall, I believe those 4 holes cost me 6-8 shots over two days and that was just about the difference between finishing 10th and having a chance to win down the stretch.

In other news, I had my first three-putt of the year in the first round. I was keeping this fact to myself…respecting the streak. The streak lasted 195 holes. It’s another measure of how well I’m putting it this year, and I feel that my best is still to come.

I’m looking forward to heading back north on Sunday and possibly getting out of this wind. Next week I will be playing the Tarheel Tour event at Oldfield Golf Club in Bluffton, SC.

I have been happy with several aspects of my golf game early in the 2007 season. The statistics I’ve maintained since I turned professional are sometimes useful in quantifying what I feel. So, I took a look at a few stats after my first 5 events and was encouraged by what I found:

• Putts per Green in Regulation: 1.659. This would rank 1st by a mile on the PGA Tour. Justin Rose currently ranks first with 1.701. To put it in perspective, the difference between me and Justin is the same as the difference between 1st and 20th on the PGA Tour.
• Putts per Round: 28.25. This would rank 12th on the PGA Tour.
• Driving Accuracy: 75.79%. This would rank 4th on the PGA Tour.

These statistics are very exciting to me given how important driving and putting are to scoring.

I finished 8th, 2 shots off the winning score, in the Minor League Golf Tour event at Atlantis Country Club yesterday. I have to hand it to the guys running these events. They do a very good job with only two people. It reminds me a bit of the old days of the Tarheel Tour when they were only getting 40-60 players per event.

On to the action… It was incredibly windy yesterday - 15-20 mph sustained. I started on the back nine and made 3 birdies. Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to get anything going and offset those birdies with two bogies. I missed an easy birdie from 170 out on the par-5 first and then birdied the third to get to two-under on the day.

When I reached the 7th hole, I knew I was two shots off the pace. After a great drive, I was left with 118 to a back right hole location. The wind was howling right-to-left and slightly into my face. So, I had to nail a low pitching wedge and start it right of the green to get it close. I hit the shot I wanted, but the wind lied down for only the second time all day (the first time was on the previous hole). So, my ball landed about 8 yards long and 4 yards right leaving a very hard recovery. I bogied and followed with a bogey on the next (a very difficult par 3 with the wind blowing as it was). I birdied my last, the ninth, to finish 1 under and two shots out of a playoff.

So, despite not really getting anything going all day, I still had a chance coming down the stretch. I hit the shot I wanted on 7, but got unlucky when the wind died. Overall, I’m happy with my performance and feel like it was a good test for the swing changes I’m making.

I found that I’m not trusting the changes 100% yet which is normal for any swing change. My shot shape, however, is enormously better than it was even a few weeks back. This is great progress.

I have another two-day event down here next week and that will close out my “Florida warm-up season”.

Unfortunately ebay removed my sponsorship auction benefitting the Capital Hospice after it was posted for about 4 days. I was very disappointed because it had generated quite a bit of interest including a mention in the March 9th issue of Golf World.

The removal came as a huge surprise. In addition to researching ebay’s listing policies in detail, I also had a long conversation about the auction with an ebay representative who advised me on the listing. Ebay’s reason for removing the auction was because it did not involve the sale of a product or service.

Nothing has changed with my partnership with the Capital Hospice. I will continue to donate 10% of my tournament earnings to them, as I have since 2005. I am still actively looking for sponsorship funding for the year.

Yesterday was perhaps the best practice session I have had in years. I really started to feel and trust the positions that I’m working on. Specifically, I’m trusting the club opening more on the backswing, and this is allowing my left arm and body to move more correctly. The images below taken on March 5th illustrate how I’m getting into great positions:

In the left image (A), the club is exactly in line with my hands when it reaches parallel with the ground. The leading edge of the clubface is almost vertical, pointing slightly down toward the ball. The difference between this and two weeks ago is that the clubhead was pointing more toward the ground (more closed) and the head was significantly outside my hands (more upright). This position, for me, causes me to naturally complete the backswing into a very good position (image B). The clubface matches my hands very well and the shaft is pointing right down the line toward the target. My hands could be slightly lower, but they’re pretty good right now. The side benefit is that my right leg is naturally more stable than before.

On to the downswing. In the image below, I am almost perfectly on plane. Because the end of the backswing was slightly upright, my downswing is slightly upright also. But, this is really splitting hairs. The clubface is still nice and open compared to two weeks ago. Before, at this point in the swing the clubface was angled more toward the ground and I had to hold off the closed clubface through impact to prevent a hook. Now, I’m free to do whatever I want with the club through impact to produce any shot-type I want.

Honestly, I think this is about as good as my swing has looked…ever! The changes have also resolved something that has nagged me for the last 4 years. My grip didn’t feel stable around impact and this was proven by how often I was going through gloves. I would wear out the thumb within 3 days of normal practice. My most recent glove lasted almost 7 days. The grip feels stable throughout the swing.

If you can’t tell, I’m very excited. This is exactly what I need to improve my ball striking consistency in the long term.

I was beaten yesterday in the second round of the Tarheel Tour Match Play Championship. I played a mediocre round and was 2 under through 16 holes when the match ended. Against many players, this would have been adequate. But, I was playing a very good player, Frank Adams, who had a very solid round.

My ball striking was again good, but my distance control with my approach shots was off just slightly. I seemed to be 8 yards short or long all day. So, my birdie chances were longer than normal and I only made two on the day.

Overall, though I’m disappointed that the event is over for me, I’m very pleased with how I played this week. I was 10 under for the 49 holes I played. I struck the ball well and putted well all week. My missed shots were remarkably better than even one week ago before my most recent lesson with Jack.

I have two weeks off before my next event on the Tarheel Tour. I will probably play two small tour events down here in West Palm Beach and will practice a lot to get these swing changes ingrained.

I made it through the first round of the Tarheel Tour’s Match Play event today with a 5 and 3 victory over Matt Bettencourt. This was a difficult draw for a first round match since Matt is an accomplished player. I played well - 5 under through 15 holes. I’ve played with Matt before, so I also know that he didn’t show me his best game today.

Swing changes were ok. They still need some work, but I’m feeling some good shots and my bad ones are definitely getting better. I made some good putts today when I needed to.

Round two is tomorrow.

I shot 69 yesterday in the qualifying round for the Tarheel Tour Match Play Championship at Old South Golf Links. I finished tied for second, one shot off the low round. Since the top 16 seeds came directly from the money list, I ended up seeded 20th.

It was a solid round with a lot of positives. I hit a lot of really good shots and the ball was moving straight instead of right-to-left. My bad shots were much better than what they’ve been in recent weeks. The work I did with Jack on Monday felt great on the course.

Match play rounds start today with 6 matches over the next 4 days.

I stopped off at Sea Island on Monday for a lesson with Jack Lumpkin. A few days earlier, I had taken some video and self-diagnosed a bit. I was seeing a clubface that was too shut on the backswing causing my club to swing more upright than normal. He agreed that we needed to address this and we discovered that the cause was improper location of grip pressure in my right hand. If I take the club back left-handed, everything looks great. So, I’ve just got to get the grip pressure in the right place, constant and correct in my right hand.

We also moved my grip a touch weaker. I’m working on showing 2-3 knuckles of my left hand instead of almost 4.

Jack liked the work I had done on stability in my right leg on the backswing. I cooked up a gadget to help me with stability. It’s a stability pad under my right foot and a 2×4 block of wood under my left. The block of wood is just so my left foot is as high as my right. If I’m unstable in my right leg, I lose balance and have a lot of trouble staying on the pad. He took some video of me on this contraption and liked what he saw.

My putting stroke looked good. I need to do a little work on tempo, but all the positions looked good to him.

This was a very promising lesson (as they all seem to be with Jack). I’m looking forward to putting our changes into play.