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- What Course Yardage Do You Need to Play From To Feel Like Rory? + A Canadian Course Where You Can Go Fishing Mid-Round
What Course Yardage Do You Need to Play From To Feel Like Rory? + A Canadian Course Where You Can Go Fishing Mid-Round
Plus, the "Hide The Club" Chipping Tip
Wild Golf
July 22, 2024
Happy Tuesday- what a performance by Xander Schauffele at Royal Troon. His 4 under back 9 will go down as one of the all-time great closing nines during the final round of a major. When asked if winning the PGA Championship earlier this year at Valhalla had any impact on his Sunday round, he remarked, “I think winning the first one helped me a lot… I had some feeling of calmness come through.” That’s called confidence Xander, and you should be brimming with it right now. Go be great!
In today’s newsletter…
✅ TIPS & DRILLS: When you hit a poor chip, it’s almost guaranteed that that you’re not “hiding the club”. Learn how below.
✅ COURSES: Pack your fly fishing gear in your golf bag? This scenic British Columbia course limits tee times to make sure you have time to enjoy the links and get a few casts in.
✅ STATISTICS: How far would you have to hit it to feel like Rory? Or put another way, what length course would you need to play to feel like Rory? Find out below.
✅ TRIVIA: Who had the largest margin of victory ever in a professional tournament? We found out and WHOA, it’s big. Submit your answer for a chance to win a TaylorMade Summer Commemorative Staff Bag!
Let’s go!
TIPS & DRILLS
“Hide The Club” Chipping Technique
From golf pro and coach, Kyle Rodes
To Recap…
Golf Pro and Coach, Kyle Rodes shares a simple but wildly effective finishing move you need to incorporate into your chipping motion to match the best players in the world. As he states, “I’d be willing to bet that if you took a picture of your finish position on your worst shots, you’d be nowhere near this spot.”
-THE MOVE: If someone was watching you from directly behind the ball, the perfect finishing position with a chip shot is to make sure the entire club and elbows are hidden behind your body after you move through the impact zone.
-WHY IT WORKS: It’s really hard to stab/chop at the ball and get the ball close to the cup- doing so would require near perfect contact. Finishing by “hiding the club” will ensure that you’ve released the club properly ahead of your hands.
-ALSO: The key to this move is that it holds up under pressure. An over-reliance on having great hands is something even few pros can pull off. But by rotating your torso to a proper finish, you’ll be far less reliant on perfect hands.
PRO TIP: If you need an extra set of eyes to check your finish and you don’t have a buddy that’s patient enough to sit behind you for a few dozen chips, use a camera- don’t be embarrassed about being that guy on the practice green! You know what’s not embarrassing? Consistently knocking your chips inside gimme range.
COURSES
A Canadien Gem Where You Can Go Fishing Mid-Round
This BC course may be remote, but it’s worth the journey
Sagebrush Golf Club
Quilchena, British Columbia, Canada
When Sagebrush Golf Club opened in 2009, critics were starry-eyed. Located on a remote ~400 acre plot of land 180 miles northeast of Vancouver, the semi-arid terrain on which Sagebrush sits wasn’t the most accommodating for a golf course. But designer Rod Whitman pulled it off, creating a links style layout complete with massive fairways, immaculate, undulating greens, and an abundance of picturesque views above Nicola Lake.
In true minimalist links-fashion, there are no yardage markers in the fairways nor rakes around the bunkers at Sagebrush (the #2 course in British Columbia). And there aren’t any traditional tee markers either- the player with honors can choose any tee location for the group within a ‘tee square.’ Even still, none of the aforementioned facts is the most surprising part of the experience.
On the 13th hole, there’s a hut called “The Hideout” where you can try your hand at catch-and-release fly fishing mid-round. Yes, you read that right… you can fish mid-round. Now one might think that this would hold up play and ruin the experience for a diehard golfer. But Sagebrush only accommodates a maximum of 56 golfers each day, or ~1/4 the number of guests a traditional course might host. The resulting experience is one that outdoorsmen from near and far salivate over. But let’s be honest, very few people live in remote British Columbia, so pretty much everyone is traveling rather far. Regardless, Sagebrush is worth the extra distance.
Rates: $120 - $230 during peak season
Check out this rundown from @freeformgolf
STATISTICS
Stat of the Day: Course Yardage You’d Need to Play From to Feel Like Rory
presented by…
The Stat: Rory McIlroy’s average driver distance was 326 yards in 2023 (the longest on tour), which equates to 4.473% of the length of an average PGA Tour course. The average ~14 Handicap player hits it about 230 yards off the tee, which means they’d need to play a 5,132 yard course to feel like Rory.
The Takeaway: According to the USGA, male golfers on average play from a course distance of 6,089 yards. That’s quite a bit longer than it could or probably should be. Don’t be afraid to tee it up from a shorter set of tees, even just once a while. Doing so will lead to more scoring opportunities and honestly, more fun. Plus there’s the side benefit of training your brain to become accustomed to (and expect) lower scores. Could you imagine having a wedge into nearly ever par 4?
TODAY’S TRIVIA
Answer to Win a TaylorMade Summer Commemorative Staff Bag
(1 winner chosen on 7/31/24 across all May trivia entries, 1,000 respondents minimum)
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Who holds the record for winning by the largest margin in a professional tournament?*By 16 strokes! 😮 |
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