Author: vet4golfing51

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.

Having a great  week in San Diego with the grandkids. I thought this would be a good time to give a little  synopsis of the blog. I started this blog in August of 2010 with a two fold purpose. One was to keep me playing. Even though I have a played this game a long time, over 50 years I had 2 brief breaks. One was in 1964 because I was helping my Dad with a major remodeling project. I then quit playing from October of 1994 to May of 1996 for various reasons not the least of which was frustration. The interesting thing I discovered, was that I did not miss the game at all. In retrospect I should have sat out another year but came back that year at the urging of golf buddies. When I told people I was going to quit playing for awhile I got various reactions, including had I joined some religious cult where I had to give up something I really liked. I wonder if anybody got this reaction when they quit bowling.   When I came back, I came back with a vengeance. I played in many golf tournaments, had some intense instruction in 2004 and 2005 but again was getting very frustrated with a lack of progress. I was about ready to quit again for good when I came up with the idea to play all the public golf courses with 90 minutes of my house. I came up with the number 90 for the number of courses because it would be 90 courses within 90 minutes. I thought I would be able to do this in about 1 year. Naturally it has taken a lot longer than that. Then I moved the number up to 100. The other purpose was to try to find a way to make this game easier and less frustrating. I have read golf instruction books and articles and have done pretty intense research on the golf swing. Recently I have found what I consider the key to the golf swing and I have described this in previous blogs. Now it is on to the mental game and the less than full swing game. There are  two things that make golf totally unique.

There is no opponent that can influence the results of your play.

There is no standard of a playing field. Just think if they moved the foul line in basketball, the pitching mound, changed the size of football field or width of the goal posts.

The big question I have right now is do we put too much emphasis on the mental game. Golf instruction has become so technologically advanced that there is not one movement of the swing, the pitch, the chip, or the putt, that has not been dissected to the minutest detail. You would think that if you are having a physical problem with your swing that with a good instructor it would be discovered. If everything looks good then your problem is in your head. I am not too sure that is correct. In the coming weeks I will see if I can prove this premise. Last week I quoted an article about advice to hit the ball with a blank mind. This article was written in a magazine The American Golfer that was published between 1920 and around 1935. This advise was given by Stuart Maiden, “the wee Scotsman” in 1922. Stuart Maiden was Bobby Jones’s only instructor. When I say I have researched the golf swing I am not kidding. I will be in San Diego through Wednesday and I will be back on the links by Thursday and adding new courses the following week.   

The grandkids went back home on Tuesday and we had a great week. Golf got into full swing with 4 rounds played but not much success in unraveling the short game mystery. The scores were mediocre starting with 82 and 76 on Wednesday, 81 Thursday and an 80 today. The ball striking is very good but the chipping and putting are just brutal and some of the new things I have tried have failed miserably. A lot of this is between the ears and maybe that will be more of the focus this week. In about 10 days I will be heading out to San Diego to see the grandkids for a week so I don’t see me playing any new courses until I get back May 8th. So far I played 86 golf courses within 90 minutes of my house over the last 2 and 2/3rds year with the goal to reach the 100 mark. Of course during this 86 course trek I have been searching for the answer to make this game play a little easier. The full swing I have found it, which I have covered in previous blogs, but that still leaves the less than full swing game and the brain game, which some people refer to as the mental game. With only 14 courses left time is running out. I have always said if I don’t find the answer by the end of the trek I will throw my clubs into the lake. Of course the final course better have a lake near the 18th green. And yes one of the remaining 14 does have a lake near the 18th green so it won’t be hard to figure out what the last course will be. But on a more positive note maybe I will find the answer. Ah yes, the brain such a wonderful device. Too bad we don’t know very much about it. Do they still do lobotomies? Now theres an idea. Jack Nicholson didn’t look too bad at end of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. I wonder if he putted better.

With the grandkids visiting, it was a slow week on the circuit for me personally but wow did the Masters make up for that. I had one 9 hole round and an 18 hole round on Wednesday at Village Green. I shot 79 with minimal short game improvement but working again, on something new, so will see what happens this week, as golf will get into full swing on Wednesday. My 3 year old grandson practices his golf swing constantly. I did ask them what the answer to golf was, but they had no idea what I was talking about, and just walked away.   There has been so much written and discussed about the Tiger controversy that I want to write about the subject on a more general level. These call ins about rules violations is nothing new. Paul Azinger and Craig Stadler were victums of these call ins. What I have a problem with, is the decision to assess penalties or disqualifications were made the next day. In every instance the rules committee had all the information they needed that evening on the same day. Instead of sitting down for however long it took and hashing it out, the ruling bodies went to dinner had a few drinks, maybe even got laid(that is if ruling bodies of golf are even interested in such things) and had a good nights sleep. In other words all rulings and decisions should be made on the day of play and the rules committee should deem those rulings final. Nobody should ever go to bed thinking they shot one score and wake up the next morning to find out that it is not true. I feel this happens because committees are just lazy and don’t want to finish job. Not in any other sport where rules are brokien or calls are missed are things changed the next day. Yes I know that games can be played under protest and every once it awhile something changes but it is very rare. I also know the rules of golf is like the holy grail but there comes a time where common sense has to take over. What if some one had a video camera and saw a rules violation that no network camera caught. Then this person decided not to make it public for 6 months and this was the player that won the tournament.  Would the rules of golf put in a statue of limitations or would the player be stripped of his title. What happens happens and when the clock stikes 12 the results are final. In the meantime the search continues.