The few of you who follow will note that I've flipped some of my old posts into hiding. I'm trying to eliminate a theme that dominated last year's return to a full pro tour: "Why am I not getting results?"
Two reasons for this:
1) I am a proponent of process-oriented thoughts.
Governing how one approaches tasks should take priority over the results. That becomes extremely difficult when one is getting smacked around the course on a week-by-week basis, but it is probably more important at that time.
2) I figured out that equipment contributed to the problem
Most pros play the 2007 Titelist ProV1 ball. It has the Callaway cover with the internals of the current ProV1, giving it the best of both worlds. I tested the 2012 ProV1 against it (bounce, roll distance, weight, spin tests) and it appeared comparable. It wasn't until a couple days before National finals that I realized that this was not the case.
All year long I couldn't figure out why I was getting slightly different kicks, especially when it is a hard putt off the back rail. Apparently the surface of the 2012 ball is different enough to enhance skids when hitting a ball hard directly off a rail; it gets worse the harder you hit it. The older ball, even if it has the same amount of use, changes direction and rolls out far quicker. At nationals, my ball was skidding almost a foot at times while a switch to the older ball reduced it to 3-4 inches.
In hindsight this makes sense. My best tournaments were overseas at World events (medalist at World Masters, Top-10 at World Crazy Golf) where the balls and equipment are different.
So how is that impacting this year?
I made a lot of swing changes thinking that it was spin _I_ was imparting on the ball. I'm clearing the board and determining what really needs to be fixed.
