Golfing the University of Minnesota Les Bolstad golf course

I just had to get out and try out my new clubs.  It was just killing me having them and not using them.  I went to the U of M course in Falcon Heights, near the St Paul campus.

A course I have not played in many years.  They have actually built a new pro shop in the time I was there last.

My impression of the course has changed from the last time I played.  In fact, my memory of the course was pretty non-descript other than remembering 10 and 11 to be brutally tree lined and difficult.  The only other hole that stuck out for me was hole 2, a pretty par 3 with a carry over water to an elevated green.  After this round I am impressed with the course.  I think the fairways and greens are in a lot better shape than the last time I played.  The holes were actually remarkably well maintained.  The only rough spots around the greens were clearly marked as GUR.  Something you don't typically see in a municipal level course.

The layout is interesting with a lot of elevation changes during a hole.  This lends itself to a fair number of blind tee shots, but for the most part the route is well defined and any blind shots do not hold hidden hazards.  The greens are almost all elevated.  This seems to be the primary defense of the greens.  There is sand but I didn't seem to find a lot of it.  There is also water, but again it did not seem to come into play except on extreme wayward shots.

The course isn't the longest- only 6288 yards from the tips, with a rating and slope of 70/119.  The course plays as a par 71, with 35 going out and 36 coming back.  The university team does not play here- since 2005 they have called Spring Hill their home course.  This year they switched to Windsong Farm.  Both of those courses are much more modern in their length.  THe last time the Les Bolstad course hosted a tournament was 1999.

The Tom Lehman practice facility at the course is where the team practices.  It has a tremendous short game facility.  The practice facility has six separate putting surfaces. Lehman designed each green to be styled differently and present players with different types of shots to play. There is a Pinehurst style green and Winged Foot style green as well as traditional and modern U.S. styled greens.

Onto the course.  We started out on the back nine, so the ordering is a bit out of turn.

Hole 10- Par 4 (344/339/281 yards)
The back 9 starts on the south side of Larpenter Avenue.  There is a tunnel that passes under the road to access hole 10 and 11.  Hole 10 is a straight away par 4 that is tree lined the entire length of the hole.  You must hit a straight shot here to get on the green in two.  I stripped a 3 iron-hybrid 240 yards right down the middle of the hole.  Probably my best hit with that club all year.

Hole 11- Par 4 (356/347/268 yards)
Hole 11 runs back opposite hole 10 and is virtually identical- a straight ahead par 4 with trees lining either side and the road to the far left.

I hit my gap wedge in here and actually had it zip back on me 5 feet.  That was something that rarely if ever happened with my old clubs.

You can see here one of the few patchy spots on the course.  It was in general in excellent shape.  The rough around the greens and off the fairways was rather long and thick and was definitely a deterrent.

Hole 12- Par 4 (417/411/351 yards)
Hole 12 is a blind tee shot on this straight away par 4.  The driving range is down the right on this hole.

On your second shot you must split a pair of trees flanking the fairway.  The green is one of the first elevated greens of many you will face.

Hole 13- Par 5 (536/525/430 yards)
A big swooping dogleg left requires a good tee shot shaped from right to left.  Amazingly I hit a perfectly executed fade and cut a bit of distance off on the hole.

Take a look to the right at the great practice facility for the golf team.  Notice the nice sugar sand bunkers.  A bit better than what is found on the course.

 Mark was not as fortunate, hitting his far right and almost OB.

 The fairway, if you can find it is actually the widest on the course.

 The green has a false front but is level on all the other sides.

Hole 14- Par 4 (310/280/268 yards) 
This short par 4 offers a sharp dogleg to the right.  The 150 stake is an aiming point for a short iron off the tee.  If you want you can play out over the trees to the right, as long as you can clear them, you will shorten the hole a lot.

From 150 yards out, the fairway rolls gently towards another elevated green, protected on both sides by a pair of bunkers.

Hole 15- Par 4 (390/390/305 yards)
Another blind tee shot.  Right is OB and left is heavily wooded so it is important to find the fairway.

The fairway does slope from left to right as it descends towards the hole.  The green is again elevated but otherwise is unguarded.

Hole 16- Par 4 (377/374/314 yards)
A somewhat funneled fairway assists you on this uphill par 4. You must carry water off the tee but it is not in play.

 From this tee you can look behind you to see the Midland Hills Country Club across Roselawn Avenue.

 Once again the green is unguarded but elevated.  Make sure you aim at the right flag on this hole.  It is the smaller of the 2, not the big flag with the U on it!

Hole 17- Par 3 (151/145/137 yards)
A short par 3 with a domed green that falls off on all sides and is protected left by a single bunker.  There is water here but it should not come into play.

 I hit my tee shot exactly where I was aiming and it dropped and stopped.  I made my putt for a bird.

Hole 18- Par 4 (414/409/396 yards)
The finishing hole is a straight par 4.  There is water short off the tee that should not come into play.  A tree down the right can be carried.  Hitting over the left side of these trees is a great shot.

The green is fairly accessible but going long it does drop off and Larpenter Avenue is not too far beyond.

Hole 1- Par 4 (399/393/375 yards)
A straight away par 4.  The tee shot is blind as a hill obstructs the green.  A tight driving hole with OB left and trees down the entire right side.  The green has a bunker protecting the front left quarter of the green.

Hole 2- Par 3 (175/163/130 yards)
A really pretty par 3 that requires a carry over water and up to the elevated putting surface.  Below and to the left is a large bunker.  The right side is also guarded by another trap.  This is the second longest of the three shot holes on the course.

Hole 3- Par 4 (416/400/382 yards)
A bit of a confusing look awaits off the tee on this hole.  It is hard to tell where to hit.  You want to basically try to hit over the right half of the raised portion of the fairway you can see.  The hole is fairly straight with just a slight right curve.

From atop the rise in the fairway you can see on the tee, the fairway drops down towards the green.  A pond is far left of the green but should not be in play unless you really miss-hit one.  A bunker protects the entire right side of the green.

Hole 4- Par 4 (359/355/340 yards)
One more straight ahead par 4.  The fairway generally slopes from right to left so a miss down the right side is more likely to find the fairway.

Again, the green is elevated from the fairway.  It is also guarded on the right by an oak and left by a bunker.

Hole 5- Par 3 (167/159/135 yards)
An  elevated green offers the only defence on this medium par 3.  I hit the left corner of the green but my ball rolled off the front and ended all the way at the bottom of the slope some 15 feet away.

A view if the green from the 6th tee.  The green is wide but not very deep.

Hole 6- Par 4 (326/306/294 yards)
A shorter par 4 that has a pair of bunkers protecting drives from getting too close to the green.  The best play is to hit just short of the right edge of the left bunker off the tee.

Hole 7- Par 5 (476/464/450 yards)
A par 5 with the most legit water hazard down the right side off the tee.  The hole doglegs right around the water before doglegging back left to the green.  Down the left side, the hole slopes back towards the fairway but is also heavily lined by trees.

The green is unguarded by any hazards.


Hole 8- Par 3 (195/185/178 yards)
The longest par 3 on the course.  The green has a large bunker left.  The green is domed and anything missing the putting surface will require good touch to save par.


Hole 9 - Par 5 (480/472/444 yards)
The finishing hole is a short par 5.  There is water down the right marked by a tall pole.  A more likely hazard off the tee is a pair of bunkers flanking the fairway.

The hole plays straight away and from about 120 yards slopes down towards the green.  The green is open to approaches from the front but a large shallow bunker circles the back half of the green and another protects the front left corner.  Right behind the bunker is maybe 5 feet of grass and then OB so hitting long is not advised.

NEW STICKS!!

I went in today and picked up my new irons from Totally Driven.  They look absolutely lovely. I can't wait to get out and play them, though I almost hate to get them scratched up.

My new irons- Taylor Made Rocketbladez Tour with SST Pured Dynamic Gold S300 shafts and Golf Pride New Decade grips.

And the prettiest of pretties, my new Edel wedges with Dynamic Gold DGSpinner shafts with custom paint fill and my initials. 

How fancy pants are these?

My woods are still in transit  but for now it's time to go see how great these play!

Columbia- League Week 13

The second to last week of regular season league was today at Columbia Golf Course.  Michael and I dropped to 5th place after only earning 1 point last week. 

This week was the front 9. After last week I was hoping to bounce back to the form I had in week 11 when I shot a 36 on the front.  Today had pretty windy conditions though that made scoring difficult.

We played against Paul and Jay.  Here, Paul is preparing to tee of on the par 4 second hole.

After a par start I tried a difficult shot on 2 that eventually led to a triple.  Ick!  The rest of the day this is the only birdie I saw.  This guy was perched on a tree to the right of the 4th fairway.

I did have one high point of the day.  After a 300 yard drive down the middle on the par 5 7th, I hit a 6 iron just left of the pin.  Unfortunately it flew long and I ended up 10 yards over the green in 2.  Unfortunately I failed to get up and down for bird but had an easy par.

On a good note, my putter continues to be hot.  I feel so confident over mid to short putts.  I hit a lot of putts right on line but too short.  So my aim is great, I just need to get the speed down on Columbia's uphill putts.

We ended up splitting the points this week at 2.5.  I am sure that is not enough to move up.  next week I will be in Canada and Michael is playing another course so we will for sure be falling in the standings.  I would guess we should be one of the first 3 or 4 tee times for the playoffs.

Totally Driven- A kid in a candy store

On Friday, I had one of the coolest golfing experiences this year, when I had a chance to get a complete club fitting through Totally Driven, in Edina, MN. 

Totally Driven has been in business since 2006.  They used to be located in Woodbury but this year moved to Edina, which is a lot closer for me.  This Christmas my parent-in-laws got me a gift certificate for here.  I finally felt like my swing was getting into a groove so a full fitting was scheduled.  I was really pumped as they have been ranked as one of the top 100 club fitters in America, and their facility is top notch.

My appointment was at 1:30PM so I went to the range to be warmed up before heading over.  For those who know the area, Totally driven is just north of 494 and just west of Bush Lake Rd.

When you first walk into the office, there is a receptionist to greet you.  I was greeted by Andy, one of the founders.  He introduced my to my fitter for the day, Jesse VanRiper.

Next to the reception area is the putting area, complete with a wide variety of putters and the Edel putter fitting station.

Next to the putting area is a short game chipping room.  An automated SST PUREing device is also located here.

Walking past these areas, you enter the heart of the facility with the weight training facility to the left and the main hitting area to the right.  Totally Driven offers a full fitness program for all levels of golfers.  It is headed by Lynn Anderson and Jason Jaynes, both TPI certified.

The fitness area is well stocked with very nice LifeFitness equipment and golf specific training aids.

The majority of my day was spent in the full swing hitting area.  They have 7 stations, each equipped with FlightScope and Trackman monitors.  Here you can see Jesse entering in some of my status into the FlightScope system.

Jesse initially recorded my clubs and took measurements and recorded the specs on my current equipment.  During this time I began warming up by hitting shots into the nets.

We began our fitting using a Mizuno swing analysis device.  This is basically an iron with a computer attached.  It measures swing speed, tempo, lag, kick, and face position.  This device is used to essentially give a ball park idea to the fitters on appropriate shafts to try during the fitting.

Next we decided to jump into the driver fitting.  This is typically the most tiring fitting so they recommend doing this first.  We got the FlightScope warmed up and I began by hitting 8 shots with my driver to get an average analysis of its performance.  I hit a couple of stinkers that Jesse excluded from the analysis.

We then started trying different clubs, and switching out shafts and adjusting the lie and other settings on the drivers to dial in the specs to be as optimal as possible.  I hit several clubs, including the Nike Coverts, Cobra Amp Cells, Ping G25 and Anser, Taylor Made R1, Rocketballz, and Titleist 912 D2. 

During this time I was also hitting a couple of balls.  Jesse had asked me before we began what ball I played, and told him I really did not use a standard- but played what I found.  We started with the Srixon Z-Stars, as that was the last ball I had bought.  After seeing the stats of the clubs with that ball we switched balls until we found one that was performing the best- the Bridgestone B330 S.

Of the drivers the best match for me was the Titleist 913 D2 at 12 degrees of loft.  I tend to have a negative AOA with my driver and this loft was giving me an average real loft of 9.6 degrees.  Once we got the club dialled in, we continued to try more specific club settings and shafts. 

After the driver we moved on to the fairway wood.  I currently have a Nike 3 wood that I have a love hate, relationship.  I can absolutely stripe the thing nearly as far as my driver, but I also frequently hit it very poorly.  Again, we started out hitting my club.  Several screaming dogs and a few OK shots gave us a baseline.  Again we went through hitting various models.  This test had some really interesting numbers.  You can see below a chart showing some of the clubs and the numbers I was getting.

Most interesting is with my club, I was hitting with an average swing speed of 102mph and was only getting an average 170 yard carry.  With the eventual winner, the Titleist 913F, my swing speed dropped up to 6mph but my carry went up to 230 yards!  That is just crazy to see a 60 yard increase with a slower swing!  Also with the club tweaked the spin axis was going from 1.39 degrees left to almost zero (0.3 degree left).  Those numbers are just sick.  The one club I wanted to hit here, that they did not have for lefties, was the Ping Answer.  I looked at one of those in a store and just loved the way it felt at address.  But with the kind of just numbers from the 913F who can complain?

After the woods fittings, I was a bit winded.  I think these 2 fittings took about 2 1/2 hours to complete.  To allow me to rest a bit we went to the putting area to do a putter fitting. 

For the putter we began by Jesse watching me make several putts around their putting surface.  We talked a little bit about my putting game and how I approach a putt (setup, lining the ball up, etc.)  I feel like I am a pretty good putter but feel I tend to get a bit handsy. 

Next we tried a distance control test- putting to a string laid across the green, with the objective of stopping it right on the string.  I was none to consistent, rolling them all by several feet.

After watching this Jesse picked out a putter for me to try but first we set up the Edel laser sight.  This is basically a circular device the size of a golf hole with a laser embedded in it.  The laser shines out to your putter, and a mirror attached to your putter then reflects the laser back onto a backstop.  This allows you to attempt to align a ball up to the "hole" and then the ball is removed, allowing the laser to reflect back and show your actual alignment and also loft. 

I normally line up my put using a line on my ball and then square my putter to the ball's line.  After attempting to line myself with the laser I quickly realized that I was not at all consistently aiming the putter.  Jesse had me try to aim the put without using a line on the ball and I got a little bit better but was still not close.

Next Jesse handed me a different putter- The Taylormade Ghost Tour DA12.  This putter is all white with a single black sight line.  Immediately my aim proved much more accurate using the laser sight.  The loft was also much better, not nearly as high as my Odyssey.  Next Jesse added a counter weight to the top of the putter and we tried the distance control putting.  With a 50 gram weight I immediately rolled 3 balls right onto the string.  That was just crazy!.  He then tried a heavier weight, and a lighter one but neither allowed as consistent distance control as the 50 gram weight.

Finally we talked about the putter grip itself.  the Talyormade comes with a crappy plastic feeling grip.  Jesse recommended a Super Stroke grip, as he said he has used them and help to quiet the hands.  We looked at several options they had and I picked out a grip. 

After the surprising putter fitting we went back to the fitting area to work on Iron fitting.  Jesse measured my clubs swing weight and then we worked with a Mizuno MP-59 club and started dialling in optimal swing weights using contact tape.  This was another shocking experience, to see how changing the swing weight changed the consistency and location of my ball striking.  For me, switching to a D4 made a crazy improvement where all of my strikes were centred on the face.

Next we went back to the FlightScope monitor and started out by hitting my clubs.  We started with both a 6 and 7 iron. as all of the manufacturers had at least one of these clubs to compare against.  After another exhaustive comparison I found the best combination of launch, spin, rotation, and carry was the Taylormade Rocketballz Tour irons.  I loved the feel of the Mizuno Mp-59 but they had too low of spin.  The Ping i20 were another really great feeling club- but they spun too much.  Finally the Titleist AP2's had great feel but the spin axis on those got to be a little too out of control.

One club they did not have left handed was the Callaway X-Hot Pros.  I was really keen on hitting these, but similar to the fairway woods, with the numbers the Rocketballz gave me, I really wasn't too upset.

After the wedges we did a comparison with hybrids.  Currently I carry 2 hybrids- a 3 and 4 iron equivalent.  This was the one test where it showed I really didn't gain a lot by any different club.  So the current Adams hybrids stay in the bag.  This is the only club that will remain.  That is another great thing about Totally Driven.  They are not there to push you into new equipment.  If something you have is shown to work  for you, then they tell you so.

The final club fitting were the wedges.  I have always used Cleveland wedges, and never tried anything else.  We started out with Titleist Vokey wedges on a contact board.  I have a tendency to go underneath the ball with my wedges and the contact board showed why.  The Vokey's have some of the highest bounce of any wedge offering, but I needed even more.  Jesse consulted with Andy and it was decided I try out a new Edel wedge that just came in called the Driver.  This wedge has even more bounce, and the very first time I hit with it, the contact tape was spot on the sole grind! 

After all of the fittings, the last thing to do was work on grip sizing, which was determined should be + 1/32. 

The total experience of a full bag fitting took 5 1/2 hours.  It was a bit of a marathon session.  They do offer to split the full bag fitting into 2 sessions if you are not inclined to bash balls as long as I did.  I did notice that my swing speeds dropped through the day and I had a tendency to leak shots left the more the day went on.

I cannot recommend a fitting like this more highly.  Specifically, everyone at Totally Driven was very helpful, and very patient.  Jesse never made me feel rushed and was totally open to me hitting as many clubs as I wanted, and for me to keep switching back and forth.  The numbers that the monitors bore out for my essentially off the rack clubs, compared to dialled in components is truly mind blowing. 

One funny thing I did find out about my clubs:  I supposedly had them custom made for me when I ordered them through one of the big-box retailers.  I was supposed to have +.25 inches on my clubs.  When Jesse measured them they were all over the map.  One club (my 6 iron) is actually 1 inch longer! 

Grrr, check out the un-awesome goodness that is my 3W

The other surprising thing to see is how different a change in ball can have on the exact same equipment.  I never really bought into how different balls can make an impact but the numbers certainly tell a different story.

I went ahead and placed an order based on the finding during my fitting.  In only 2 to 3 weeks I should have my clubs!

Totally Driven

www.TotallyDriven.com

6529 Cecilia Circle Edina, MN 55439
952-681-2728

Monday - Thursday 9am to 6pm
Friday - 9am to 5pm
Saturday - 9am to 4pm


Playing Update
The only club that I was able to take home immediately after my fitting was the putter.  I played the next day with it for the very first time with no practice.  It was absolutely sick.  I could not believe how true I was rolling my putts.  I think I missed one putt inside of 5 feet all day.  Any putts that I did miss were just a tap in second putt.  A never even sniffed a three putt.   With a mediocre day away from the greens, I still would have broke 80 if not for a stupid penalty shot on a hole.  With my new putter it was just lights out once on the dance floor.  If my other new clubs make as much difference as my new putter, breaking 72 is seriously within sight.