Month: June 2013

Due to some inclement weather I was limited to three rounds of golf this week, but they were very good rounds, none the less. I shot 75 on Wednesday at Fort Cherry, another 75 at South Park and then shot the best round of the year, a 71 at Ponderosa which was -0.5 on the index. I putted much better this week, with my putting overcoming some chip yips today. The amazing thing about today’s round was that I started bogey, double bogey, and then hit a drive on the third hole, that took an unexpected direct right kick and landed in a fairway bunker from behind. I hit a 7 iron about 10 yards short of the green, pitched up about 8 foot from the hole and made the tricky downhiller for the par. From that point on, I played the last 15 holes 3 under par,with 3 birdies and 12 pars, to shoot the even par 71.  Yes I am doing some mental things different but I want to write about something in general that may be a key to everyone being able to play the game at their best level. As you know I am fascinated by some of the odd swings that you see on the PGA tour, past and present. One of the reasons I started this blog was to find a better way to play this game. I was of the opinion, that instruction has failed miserably in helping people improve their games. Today with video you can see about every inch of your golf swing.  Bob Rotella states this in his books that despite all the high technology around, the average golfer’s handicap has never really improved over the years. He of course blames this on the mental game. Maybe what the problem is, is not the teaching methods but the student. What I mean by that, maybe we all aren’t accepting some of the idiosyncrocies of our golf swings. In other words why did  instructors  allow players to continue swinging the golf club in such odd ways. Furyk’s swing, Goydos’s swing, Daly’s swing, and watching Phil’s big driver swing which despite working with Mr compact swing Butch Harman goes way below parallel on his drive. Is there such a thing as a death move in golf. I am not too sure any more. Rick Smith wrote a book about finding your on golf swing and of course there is the one plane and two plane swings but it goes way beyond that. Wouldn’t you like to see Jim Furyk swing a medicus.   Do you think he could make one swing without breaking it. Maybe golf doesn’t follow the final step of the mentor-student relationship. That’s where the student no longer needs the teacher. The point is, the key to getting better in golf, is to allow your swing to have a mind of its own. Don’t fight your bodies tendencies. If something feels good don’t worry about it being right. I think the only exception to this is the grip. Of course the grip is not the swing. In future blogs I will write about how I have tried to apply this to my own game. I have quit trying to fight what I perceived as swing flaws and have done a few things that are against some of the golf fundenmentals. I am not totally convinced that this may have been a fluky week but it sure was fun. Some new courses I think will be added this week as we are heading down the home stretch.

When we last left the goofy game of golf yours truly was brimming with confidence after a 2 over par 75 at Rolling Acre, where I felt I was getting some momentum to my game. Last Wednesday dawned bright and beautiful and after some morning obligations, I headed out to Indian Run for a noon tee off. Just to prove how goofy this game is, as if I don’t already know, the day was a disaster. I thrashed and 3 putted my way to a nice big 84. Pulled drive, wrong club selection, chunked pitch, 3 putt, and wrong club and 3 putt, led to a 7 over start after 5 holes. I righted ship ball striking after that, but the putter kept the score soaring. The road to and from Indian Run is very winding, and its a good thing I had a passenger in the car because it would have been real tempting just to drive in a straight line and see what would have happened. The next day I went back to the scene of the crime and with some improved ball striking all day and slightly improved putting I managed a 78. Today at Village Green, a tougher track I shot 77, with the putter not my friend again. The big impovement the last 2 rounds has been in driving the golf ball. I started to hit down on the ball with the driver. Because the ball is teed up high I do not take a divot but hitting the ball on a slightly descending blow with the driver really seemed to help. You will hear commentators on TV talk about this some, when you hear them talk about hitting the trap draw with the driver. The old school way of hitting the ball with the driver is to feel you are hitting ball at the bottom of the arc or slightly on the upswing. I still do this if I want the drive to be fairly high when the wind is at your back. Trying to hit the ball on a slighly descending blow with the driver, I had two things happen that seemed to help my accuracy off the tee. I had a much lower ball flight and I rarely went left with the shot. I saw no decline in distance, in fact I think a gain 5 or 10 yards at times. I will see how this works in future weeks. The other thing that was of interest this week is that it seems the chip yips are gradually going away. I know, this sounds goofy but check out the title of the blog. The last 12 holes today the putting was at least mediocre and I played the last 12 holes 2 over. What will next week bring, God only knows. I do know the goofiness will continue.