Making the Range-Round Connection

Golf is a game with many challenges that we have all heard about and struggled with at one time or another. Rhythmic swing thoughts, pre-swing habits, a lucky rabbit’s foot…it’s all been tried before to get a consistent swing that can translate from the driving range to the course. Sure, the circumstances are starkly different from range to round, but the concept is the same: get the ball to travel a specific distance to a precise location. With years of practice, lessons, improved club and ball technology it shouldn’t be that hard, right? Of course it is. May we even venture to candidly say, it’s super hard, despite all the aforementioned effort (read: time and money). But for those of us who continue to strive for the elusive consistent, mechanically-sound swing, we keep at it and push through the shanks, tops, and fat shots. Why would we put ourselves through that kind of torture? Because that is the beauty of golf. It perfectly encompasses the adage that we always want what we can’t have. But, at Kinetek Sports, we challenged that idea head on and dared to game the game by making it a matter of numbers and not smoke and mirrors. We have provided a clear cut way to let players know when they are hitting properly and when they are not. No guess work. No games. Just facts.

Let’s start by saying everyone’s ideal swing is different. We would love to give all of our players one set of parameters that will give all of them the golden swing that will make them forever shoot birdies. But the reality is that would never work. The swing that gets you the best ball flight and distance might not work at all for the guy or gal hitting next to you. There are certain general qualities that can be recommended for most golfers, such as ideal tempo, but in the end different ages, body types, ranges of flexibility, and muscle memories all come together to create a unique swing fingerprint (swingerprint?) for each player. So, yes, your mother was right, you are special and unique.

Now that we’ve covered that golf is hard, we are all different and those two facts put together make getting better at golf even harder, it’s time for the part where ClubHub comes in and saves the day. Let us provide a four shot example to illustrate our point.

Shot 1: You are hitting balls at the driving range and you just hit your best shot of the day. Maybe even the best shot of your life. Beautiful ball flight. Dead straight to target. You even had the good fortune that your buddy was watching and you can now brag about this one shot for the rest of your life. Before rushing to hit the next shot, you quickly favorite that shot in the ClubHub app and even take a screenshot so you have that set of parameters as a reference.

Shot 2: You are teed up on hole one and have the confidence of Tiger in the early 2000s. You are one red mock-turtleneck away from true embodiment of the Big Cat. Looking down to your target you almost chuckle, thinking, my ball will see you there in a quick second. You wind up your backswing knowing you got this. Then, suddenly, as your downswing starts, your body realizes you really don’t got this. BAM. Ball impact happens and that previous perfect shot is nothing but a distant memory fading behind the sight of your buddy curling over in laughter.

Did this shot feel different? Most definitely. Do you know why it felt different? Now you do because ClubHub does. Taking a quick look at this shot’s parameters will show you exactly how different. If it was a rushed shot you might see a quicker tempo, shallower transition angle, steeper angle of attack, and higher Hinge value. That tells you to slow things down, take a longer backswing, get back in rhythm, and hold your wrist set for longer on the downswing.

Shot 3: You’ve been through a lot at this point. You’ve been put through the wringer. Your glimpse of glory was so swiftly undermined by your overzealous confidence. The thought of packing it up and calling it a day is getting more and more appealing. Yet, you can’t let yourself end on that note. You take a deep breath and take into account the powerful comparative information that you have in your pocket on the ClubHub app. You take your third shot and think, let’s not rush this one. BAM. Shot flies…kind of. You over interpreted how much you need to slow things down and didn’t get enough power into the swing. Although, on the plus side, it wasn’t nearly as horrendous as the previous shot. Tempo was a little better, you took the club as far back as you normally do, but your hinge value was still higher than you would like indicating that you were casting slightly. 

Shot 4: By now you have mentally matured by some measurable amount. You have your war story that will put your spouse to sleep when you tell them about it later. Other players would have given up and posted their clubs on Craigslist by now. But not you. You have a unique tool that will not only help you keep your calm but keep your swing under control. As you line up to take your next shot you have a sense of calm because the ClubHub app has steered you to your perfect fit swing, not unlike Goldilocks finding her ideal mattress. BAM. You take your shot and it flies straight to target. It falls slightly shorter than your first shot’s distance but still a respectable shot that will certainly work to your advantage on the course. Taking a look at that shot’s parameters in the ClubHub app, you see that your stats were almost identical to the first shot, except for a slightly lower swing speed. 

You take another hard look at the set of parameters from the first shot and you make a pact with yourself to stay true to those parameters and no others. You know that you can revisit those parameters when you warm up for your next round. They can be used to quickly get you back on track when you start to stray from your ideal swing style and not let an entire range session or round go to waste anymore. You will remember this battle the next time you think your game is starting to degrade on the back nine and proactively monitor your swing. A feeling of confidence starts to creep back, and, although you are not envisioning yourself in the classic Tiger-Sunday-best anymore, you know that you will have the right mindset and awareness of your ideal swing to help you play more consistently.

Our four-shot saga is of course over dramatized for reading pleasure, but the point is there. With the data you get from ClubHub, you can dial in your swing in a matter of four shots if you take the time to note what is happening in each and how they differ from one another. Take those one-off good shots that seem to be a magical coincidence of everything going right, and turn them into a resource for you to reproduce to make part of your day-to-day swing, on the course and on the range.

If you have any questions about dialing in your swing using ClubHub, please feel free to send us an email at info@kineteksports.com or give us a call at (858) 348-4420.