MESSAGE FROM THE PROFESSIONAL STAFF
Good Morning,
We had hoped to have some more information regarding the re-opening of our SIM room, but it seems we are going to be waiting for a bit longer still. In the announcement made by the provincial government yesterday, Niagara will remain in the Grey zone next week and it is being speculated that the next step(s) will be similar to what we experienced in December with Red-Zone restrictions which included only being able to share a dining table with members of your same household. We will be ready to go once these restrictions are announced. To that extent, all appointments up to Friday, February 26th have been cancelled and you should have received a cancellation notification if you had a SIM room booking.
For our Titleist fans, you will want to pay attention to today’s newsletter as we have some links to some great deals on DEMO TS Drivers, Fairways & Hybrids and a sale on ALL in stock Scotty Cameron putters. Look for the link below.
This week our “Meet the Team” staff member is Adam Steinschifter. Some of you may know that he is currently engaged, and is set to tie the knot later this summer. In addition to having to postpone their original wedding date, Adam & Charlotte have had to find some creative ways to go about celebrating. With that in mind, we wanted to help out and let all of you know about their upcoming “virtual” online celebration which includes a live music bingo on March 20th, an ongoing raffle that you can enter to win some incredible prizes, and a 50/50 contest. You can find out all about it and support Adam and Charlotte by clicking on the button below:
On behalf of the Professional Staff,
Dan Roud
Golf Shop Manager
PGA of Canada
Adam Steinschifter
PGA of Canada Class A Professional
Golf Services Manager
Teacher / Coach
Years at Lookout Point: This coming year will be my 4th year at Lookout Point Country Club. Before joining LPCC I was the Assistant Professional at St. Cathrines Golf & Country Club. I have been a member of the PGA of Canada since 2012.
Where did you grow up playing/learn to play golf?: I didn’t start playing golf until I was in High School at St. Michael in Niagara Falls. A few friends of mine began to play on a regular basis at ICC (International Country Club) & Willodell Golf Club. At one point I actually quit playing golf entirely and focused on baseball for year and a half. One day my buddies made me join them for 9 holes and I shot 33 and was reminded how much I missed it. From there I haven’t looked back, started competing, won the club championship at Willodell in 2010 & 2011 and turned pro a year later.
What is your favorite hole at Lookout Point & Why?: There are a couple. The 14th hole has my favorite tee shot on the golf course. For me, it is an outstanding shot for what it asks the golfer to do and the focus that it requires to execute it. That said, my favorite hole at Lookout Point is #5. I call it the “shortest par 4 at Lookout”. I love a hole that in order to score well you need to be able to execute a perfect shot. The only safe place to miss is short of the green, and anything left, right or long will have you struggling to make par.
If you could play any course in the world, what would it be?: As you may have guessed, I’m a sucker for punishment. The golf courses that I most want to play are likely the ones least suited to my style of game. I would love to golf at Riviera Country Club or Shinnecock Hills. Those two courses have some of the hardest conditions and most insane greens I have ever seen.
What is your most memorable personal golf moment?: Likely my first individual win as a Professional. It was one of those days where everything clicked. I shot the best round I’ve ever shot (65) and won by 7 stokes at Battlefield in Niagara Falls. I haven’t been able to get lower than 67 since.
What is your favorite moment in golf history?: Tough question. But it’s one of the two video’s below. Tiger’s putt to force a playoff vs. Rocco in the 2008 US Open or Jordan Speith going absolutely nuts from 13-18 at The Open at Royal Birkdale.
What is a Golf related accomplishment you are most proud of? You may have often heard a golfer talk about entering “the zone”. It’s that space where they forget everything around them, they have no idea how many shots they’ve made and are purely living in the present. My most memorable golf moments have come in whatever the opposite of “the zone” is called. It’s one thing to play golf against yourself or against an opponent, but when you have to play against a number and in my case at least, that number could determine your career, it is a rather tough accomplishment. When I became a member of the PGA of Canada we had to play 36 holes, all on the same day and post a score of 155 or lower. I started the day 8 over par through 15 holes and was constantly counting down from the 155 shots I had, knowing with every shot how many I had left. After the 15th hole, my buddy who had been my caddie asked me if I wanted to be the caddie and let him do the playing. I think that kind’ve sparked me a bit as I played the next 20 holes at -1 under par. I finished at 153 (2 under the number required) and earned my card. I had a similar experience when in a playoff for the Club Championships at Willodell. I think knowing what I needed to do in a specific moment, knowing that what I had to do was against the odds and then actually being able to do it is something I will always be proud of.
Who is/was your favorite golfer?: I was accused of calling a certain player a “no talent hack” and couldn’t stand him when he was an amateur playing in Texas. Now it’s hard for me not to root for Jordan Speith week in and week out. Watching a Jordan Speith round can be a roller coaster of emotions and I love every second of it.
What are you most proud of in your career so far?: There are 2 types of coaches I have seen. Those who use their students to show what they’ve accomplished as a coach, and those who use their platform to showcase their students accomplishments. I’ve always strived to be the later. In 2019, I got to see that come to fruition first hand when one of my students qualified as a 15 year old for the Canadian Men’s Amateur. I had the privilege of going with him to Nova Scotia to caddie for him in the event. I’m amazed at the quality of young golf talent there is today and was so incredibly proud of all the work that he put in in order to achieve a goal like playing in the Canadian Men’s Amateur at such a young age.
What advice would you offer to people who want to improve their game?: If I told you tomorrow you would shoot 68 would you be happy? If I told you that to do it you would have some of the worst looking swings and hit the worst shots you’ve ever hit, would you still be happy about it? Surprisingly there are a number of people who say how their golf game looks is more important that shooting lower scores. It’s ok for golfers to have preferences - for example, a golfer may want to hit a draw instead of a fade. But if that golfer hits their fade to the middle of the fairway every time and struggles blocking a draw or pull-hooking it, then what is the point. You need to have a plan. Know what you are, know what you want to accomplish, and never lose sight of the fact that the goal should be to shoot lower scores.
Save now on DEMO TS Woods, Fairways & Hybrids
We are making room for the launch of TSi by selling our in-stock TS line of clubs at some excellent prices. Click on the link below to see what is currently available.
We have also put ALL of our current stock of Scotty Cameron putters on sale for a limited time.
Note: No specials orders - only available in the specs provided. Limited qty available, if listing shows “out of stock” we have no more available.
Demo’s are marked with (DEMO) in the title. All other products are NEW
Coach’s Corner
We need your help!! Over the next few weeks as we ramp up to the start of the golf season we are going to feature a weekly chat that we are calling “Coach’s Corner”. This section is ALL FOR YOU, and we need to know what you want us to talk about. We are going to try and mix it up with some videos, links & other media to engage with you. Please fill out the form below and if there are topics or ideas that you have feel free to add them to the list provided.
Thanks in advance for your help!!!
Coach’s Corner - Episode 1
Should I care about “Strokes Gained”
In this introductory episode of Coaches Corner I wanted to share some thoughts around a concept known as “Strokes Gained”. If you are familiar with strokes gained, then this will all be rather straightforward and stuff you have heard before. If this is a new concept or idea that you are unfamiliar with I encourage you to check out the book “Every Shot Counts” by Mark Broadie. It’s available on amazon.ca for about $30 cdn. (Amazon Link). To overly simplify it, strokes gained is a way of analysing where a player sits when comparing every aspect of their performance with players in the rest of the field. The data that makes up strokes gained is mainly complied from the PGA and professional tours. If you are going to consider tracking your own strokes gained performance, remember you are comparing yourself to a PGA tour player - so go easy on yourself :) Here is a pretty straight forward video about how strokes gained is calculated:
This week, I stumbled upon a tweet from a gentlemen named “Lou Stagner” who is a Golf Stat Pro and a self proclaimed “Golf Nut, Data Nerd & Analytics dude at DECADE Golf”. Decade Golf is a “system” developed by Scott Fawcett who is notable for his work with a number of high profile college players including recent PGA Tour US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau. Here is the tweet:
@LouStagner :
You are on the tee of a 400 yard hole. Your drive hits the fairway. How far do you need to hit the ball for it to be an "average" PGA Tour quality shot? Where "average" means the tee shot gained 0.00 strokes.
Strokes gained works backwards from the hole. For example, on a 400-450 yard hole the average PGA Tour player takes 4.14 shots to hole out. With this in mind, looking at the tweet above we understand that for that tee shot to count as 1 shot - not losing or gaining anything to the field the player (on a 450 yard hole) would need to hit it 260 yards into the fairway or alternatively 312 yards if he missed the fairway and ended up in the rough. What the chart doesn’t take into account is what lies beyond the rough - Trees, hazards, bunkers etc. In this case, I think it’s safe to assume that “the rough” is just that - “the rough” and we can think of all other conditions as “recovery areas” which will no doubt lose strokes to the field no matter how hard you hit it.
I wanted to find a way to personalize this information and see if there was something I could learn about my own game and/or some things I can consider in my decision making from the tee. To do this I took Lou’s data and plotted in a line graph so I could try and better visualize where my personal averages would fall into this spread.
Note: Reminder that this is a graph based on PGA tour data. If we were to add in amateur data at various hdcps you may see the fairway and rough lines come down in spots, or get closer or further away in spots. It’s not so much about how you compare to the Pro’s but more about identifying the areas you want to work on to close the gap a bit. In this example, I purely look at tee shot performance as it relates to distance. Strokes gained goes a lot deeper and if it is something you begin tracking will very quickly show you where you should spend the most time working on your game: The tee shot, The Approach shot, Short Game and/or Putting.
The left axis is the distance in yards hit by the player, the bottom axis is the total yardage of the hole being played. For example, if we look at a 450 yard hole, for a player to equal a drive of 0.00 strokes gained or lost, they would need to hit the ball 260 yards in the fairway or if they missed the fairway it would need to go 312 yards and finish in the rough.
Strokes Gained 0.00
I find it interesting that at certain yardages there is a much bigger disparity between fairway and rough yardage required to equal 0.00 than at others. I also added in the current PGA Tour driving distance average of 295.5 yards and current Driving Distance leader Bryson DeChambeau (329.2 yards) to the line graph. It’s now pretty clear to me to see why guys like Bryson, Dustin (314.4 yards) and Rory (323.7 yards) seemingly have an advantage from a statistical perspective when it comes to strokes gained off the tee.
All that said, strokes gained off the tee is only one component of strokes gained. We could deep dive into strokes gained approach shots, short game and putting as well. As we have all seen recently with Bryson’s struggles at Augusta National and Rory missing the cut this week at Riviera - distance is only one component, it’s a large one…but it’s not everything. That right there is really the beauty of tracking strokes gained for yourself. None of us will likely “compare” to PGA Tour players and their statistics but we can still see where our biggest “gaps” are to the best in the world and draw some conclusions on where we should spend our time focusing on improving. Where do you need the biggest improvement? Maybe it is driving distance? maybe it’s putting? I Would love to hear your thoughts on that and thoughts on the chart above in the comment section below.
The biggest takeaway for me from this tweet is that there IS a benefit to hitting it further and in some cases it is a bigger benefit to be longer rather than more accurate. The average tour player is gaining strokes anytime they hit the fairway, BUT If the average tour player added an additional 20 yards they would automatically begin gaining strokes off the tee on every tee shot even if it found the rough.
Can you figure out what is hurting your speed? It could be a physical limitation - is there a way to isolate and overcome that limitation? It could be improperly fitted equipment? Is it time to get yourself fit for a new set of clubs that will help you be more accurate? It could be that simply that you are not getting as much as you should out of your golf swing? The good news is, we have the cure for ALL of that. We have a great staff of PGA Professionals that can help with your swing, can fit you for clubs that will perform better and can connect you with medical professionals who will help you move your body in better ways.
If strokes gained is something you want to dive a little deeper into, a must is the Mark Brodie book linked above earlier in this writeup. If books aren’t your thing there are a number of great resources and articles available or you can even listen to some controversial conversations on the “Hack it Out” podcast with Mark Crossfield, Scott Fawcett & Lou Stagner. (Available on google, apple, spotify and other podcast providers). These guys spend a lot of time diving into and debating the merits of Strokes Gained.
Interested in your thoughts….feel free to comment in the spot down below.
Till next time,
Dan