Author: vet4golfing51

Well, you could say that the season got into full swing this week as I got in 3and 1/2 rounds of golf this week.  One of the rounds was probably ill advised because it was barely 40 degrees and even though the sun was out there was enough of a wind that made it feel like it was in the 20’s. With the way I played, the whole week was ill advised. I had a total collapse of the short game, which led to rounds of 86, 82, and 87. Needless to say it’s back to the drawing board for the short game. My long game wasn’t too bad considering the condtitons but the short game was was was so bad, that well, let me tell you in a different way. Put any little blues melody you want while I’ll tell you

                                  I GOT THE SHORT GAME BLUES

                                 THE LONG GAME IS PRETTY TRUE

                                I WANT TO GET UP AND DOWN IN TWO

                                 BUT I GOT THE SHORT GAME BLUES 

 

                                         I TRY TO FIND THE CURE

                                        BUT I AM NEVER TO SURE

                                         I   HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE

                                       WHY I GOT THE SHORT GAME BLUES

 

                                             I GET CLUBS THAT ARE NEW

                                BUT NOTHING HELPS THE SHORT GAME BLUES

                                         AFTER THE ROUND I HAVE 6 BREWS

                                  BECAUSE I GOT THE SHORT GAME BLUES

The grand kids are coming in this week so that should cheer me up and the search for the answer will be renewed with more vigor than ever. Maybe a 3 and 5 year old have the answer. You can be damn sure I am going to ask them.  

                                                                                               

The last day of March, thank God. Last year at this time I had played 8 rounds of golf and numerous 9 hole rounds. This year with yesterday’s round I have played 2. Yes, it was a balmy 53 degrees yesterday, and in the afternoon I made it out to Indian Run. After playing fairly well for most of the day, I stumbled home with a bogey and double bogey, but still managed to shoot 77. For the early season I continued to drive the ball well and the putting was very good. At the end, indescision and loosing my tempo caused my final 2 hole collapse.  The weather is going to turn nasty again for a couple of days but then it looks like toward to the end of the week, the season may get into full swing. A slow week on the circuit as the “big” golf story is “Dufnering”. That could be our last image of good old Jason if his game doesn’t start impoving. It will be interesting to see if all the imitators ever win another golf tournament. We could call it the Dufnering Jinx. One thing for sure he looks relaxed but what the hell do you think he’s concentrating on. Maybe this could be his new position to read putts. Of course he would have to lean against his caddy.  Would his caddy get on all fours or would Jason just lean against the back of his legs. Is that against the rules?  I could see it now the Dufner rule. I wonder if  he will Dufnering  while waiting between shots. Will someone  invent the Dufnering toilet. Well let’s hope we get back to more golf oriented stories, like Tiger’s new girl friend finding him in bed with another women. Hey, maybe both of them will be in the Dufner position. What a picture that would be. Maybe I am looking for the answer in the wrong place. See you next week.  

The weather continues to be ungolf like, but I was able to walk 9 holes yesterday under sunny skies and temps in the mid 40’s, but with enough of a breeze to make it feel in the 30’s. You can tell that Pittsburgher’s are getting itchy, because when I finished up, there was someone on every hole with a wait on the first tee at around 3:45pm. I ususally do not go into a round shot by shot because I find this somewhat boring, but it was interesting how this round evolved. The opening hole at Mt. Lebanon is a par 3, and with the wind crossing and the temp being what is was, I decided to hit a 5 iron where I wound normally it 7. Even though I thinned it a little bit, it was hit well enough to get to the front part of the green. I proceeded to 3 putt.On the next hole a difficutl par 4, I hit 2 mediocre shots, and a poor pitch and 2 putted from about 30 feet for bogey number 2. On the next hole a shorter easier par 4, I really butchered 2 shots and had a difficult little pitch to a short sided pin. I hit a pretty good shot, which I thought would turn out better than about 10 feet past the pin. By now, with the wind and the cold, my mood was quickly deteriorating very fast. Low and behold I made the 10 footer for par. The next hole a short par 5, I hit  2 good shots, and was only 30 yards short of the green. My pitch was poor but I managed to 2 putt for another par. The next 3 holes were routine pars, good drives, on the green, and 2 putts.  The eighth hole is solid par 4, that today was directly into the wind. I pull hooked my drive along the left tree line, but I was fortunate to have clear shot to the green, I hit a hybrid with just a little to much hook on it, just short and left of the green, which left me below the green to a short sided pin. I hit a beautiful pitch just on the front edge and stopped only 5 feet from the hole. I made the putt. The last hole is short par 4 which in the summer is drivable but not today. I hit a pretty good drive, but the wind pushed it a little left, where it hit some limbs and dropped further to the left. Again I had an opening and hit a 50 yard bump and run on the right side of the green, and 2 putted for the par. After the opening 2 bogeys, I then made 7 straight pars. What this all means, I am not too sure. Here is  food for thought. If I had not made that 10 foot par save, would  I have made the next 6 pars in a row. Or would that have  sent the round into a further tailspin and the bogey train would have continued for another 2 or three holes. Before I made that 10 footer, I was not thinking that this 9 holes was going to end up only 2 over par. I think we all have had this experience where a round does not start out all that well, but then we turn it around and shoot a fairly decent number.  The opposite will happen when we come out of the gates flying, only to come to a screeching hault by a string of bogeys, or a really bad hole. Since the weather is not going to get any better around here any time soon, I will have plenty of time to think about this one.  

Not a big week for golf as the weather was not co-operating, and it is not looking very good for the coming week. I have the grandkids coming in this week so golf would have to take a back seat anyway. I was able to walk 9 holes on Monday and Friday so every little bit helps. Still fine tuning the short game and the putting and both are coming along. Last week, I forgot to tell about one unusual thing that happened in the opening 18 holes of the year. In fact in over 50 years of golf, this has never happened to me before. The 7th hole at Scenic Valley is a par 4 with a sharp dogleg to the right. It is a short dogleg so you can drive through the dogleg into some trees. You either have to lay up  with a 3 wood, or bend a driver around the corner, and risk going off into the woods on the right. My playing partner hit a low drive down the right side, that looked like it was going to be all right, but when we got down there, we could not find the ball. He had to go back to the cart to get another ball. While he was doing that, I continued to look around and found what looked like a relatively new ball, just sticking out from the dead leaves. I thought this could be his ball, but when I picked it up, it was a ball that I had hit in there last December. It had my OSU marking, and it was a ProV 1, that was marked with a high school golf’s team name on it, that I had been given as a gift. Not bad, lose a ball in December, find it in March. I guess the 5 minute rule is up. I have never had that happen before. Sometimes when I have played the same course 2 days in a row I have even looked for a ball the next day that I lost but have never been successful. That ball sat there for 3 months. You never know what your going to run into when you play this goofy game. 

The golf season is officially 27 holes old as of today. Yesterday I walked 9 holes at Mt. Lebanon and played 18 today at Scenic Valley on a gorgeous March 10th day with temperatures pushing into the 60’s. Unfortunately the weather is not supposed to last but I am off and running. The first hole at Mt. Lebo is a par 3 of about 165 yards slightly downhill. With a little helping breeze and some very exact calculations I decided to hit a 6 iron. I took my controlled shoulder swing, felt that I had stayed down and cold topped the shot about 70 yards down the fairway. My first thought was, is that a white mouse running around out there, but then I quickly realized it was my ball. Those winter lay offs are great. I was by myself and was praticing and already making adjustments on my new short game and putting techniques. A few years back, I also played my first nine holes at Mt. Lebanon on an unseasonably warm New Years Day. That  day I hit my iron into the bunker behind the green. I blasted out of the bunker and one hop, skip and jump later, the ball went into the hole at 11:30 am for my earliest birdie I have ever made on a calender year. That one may stand up for a long time. Today at Scenic Valley things were much better. I made some solid 5 to 6 foot putts, drove the ball like it was June, and birdied the last hole to shoot a pretty nifty 78. Not bad for an opening season round. The new putting techique and new putter worked well and the chipping was at least average which is better than putrid. The technique to work the ball seemed to be pretty effective, also. There are 14 courses left to do in the trek and there is going be a little scrambling around to find 14, as some courses that we did not play are no longer there. So sad. The 2013 golf season has started and the search for some answers to this goofy game will go on, with emphasis on the between your ears part. Hope we get to play some next week.  

The golf world has been dominated by two stories. Rory’s walk off and the tour saying it is against the belly and long putter ban. This little story I am about to tell will show when it is appropriate to walk off the course, and just how important the rules are. Back in the 80’s I played once a week, at South Park, with these retirees that were a little older than I am now. Every Friday we would tee off at the crack of dawn, and would walk the course in about 3 and a half hours. They would have a foursome on Monday through Thursday, but one of them would play with someone else on Friday, so I could join the group. I will call the three, Tom, Dick and Harry. One day when we approached the 5th tee, Harry kept on walking toward the woods, but then about half way there turned around abruptly and said ” Well I guess I didn’t make it”. As it turned out poor Harry had shit his pants. It was far more than a spray job, as the brown stain was growing rapidly in the back of his light green pants. The first thing that crossed my mind, is that South Park’s 6th hole goes right up to the clubhouse. Harry lived only about 5 minutes from the golf course. I thought after the 6th hole, he would go home clean up, and be able to easily make it to 10 to join us on the back nine. Harry was the only one to par the 6th hole and he went right up to the 7th tee and rifled a nice drive right down the middle, about his usual 230 yards out and continued on his merry way. Yes, he played 14 holes wirh a pants full. Yes he did stink. Anything within 5 foot of the cup he did not have to putt and we all stayed up wind as much as possible. The story does not end there. About 4 weeks later I show up to play as usual, just in time to tee off at 5:40am, when instead of Harry, Steve is playing with us. Even though I rushed up to the tee, I could see that Harry was there with some other guys waiting to tee off. When I asked “Why is Harry not playing with us”, I got a terse reply from Dick “Harry’s been banned from the group”. I figured maybe they just wanted to take their time on the pants shitting episode, since he had played with us the previous 3 weeks. After a few more steps I thought what the hell and asked why. Three days ago on the 18th hole he hit Tom’s ball in the fairway by mistake. Does this sum up golf or what. Its ok to play 14 holes with a pants full, but don’t get careless and hit the wrong ball on the last hole. Life time banishment from the group. Harry never played with them again. Rules are rules, but you must play the game  no matter what. So lets hope if this ever happens on the Senior Tour, that a player won’t be given any grief if he walks off the course with a pants full. Looks like I might have a good shot at playing some golf next week, see you then. 

Today’s blog is going to discuss careers gone south. Golfers that had more than just modest success on the PGA tour, and then went into career ending slumps. None of this is meant to be critical of these players because they accomplished more with their golf games than 99.9% of the golfing poputlation. I think this just shows how goofy this game can really be. One of the things I find interesting with this, is many of us complain about how no matter what we do, our over all games do not improve. Most of us do not go into slumps of this magnitude. If I wrote about all the players that this has happened to this blog would be a book. I will make a list of players, which is not complete by the way, at the end of the blog which can be looked up at various sites which one can read about. One of the things that would trigger a slump would either be a very disappointing loss but more intriquing would be a career defining win. The most talked about slump of recent memory is David Duval but he is not alone. Here are what I find to be the most interesting.

Ian Baker Finch  1991 British Open Champion. Hits the ball great at the range but simply can not play after 1994. His career came to end when he shot a 92 in the 1997 British Open.

Bill Rodgers  1981 British Open Champion. Miss the cut in 11 of the last 15 majors he played. Left tour at 37 burned out.

Chip Beck  Long time tour player, Shot 59, Top 10 Money winner, contended in majors, great attitude according to Bob Rotella. Missed 46 straight cuts sold insurance had some minor success on senior tour  

Todd Hamilton 2004 British Open Champion 2004 PGA rookie of the year. Never won again. He had only one really good year but here is what I find interesting  about the Hamilton slump. When the Momentus swing trainer first came out the poster boy for the product was David Duval. When Duval started slumping who became the new poster boy. None other than Todd Hamilton who credited the Momentus for helping him win the British Open. Obviously this device (which I love by the way) does not prevent you from going into a prolonged slump.

Shaun Micheal  2003 PGA Champion Shaun made a brief comeback in 2006 where he blamed disfunctional testicles as the reason for his poor play. A new meaning to, he didn’t have enough balls to hit that putt. Testosterone supplemnetation gave his career a very brief lift.

Curtis Strange This one pains me more than most. I really like Curtis Strange. When he was at the top of his game you always looked at him as just one of the boys. He swore, he was a great competitor, and you just felt like you could go and have a few beers with him after a round. He won the U. S. Open back to back in 1988 and 1989. Then he had to go write a book with the unfortunate title of Win and Win Again. Why was this unfortunate. Because he never won again. Nothing, not even the Senior Tour.  I have never read the book and I guess I never will.  

As I said these golfers are not alone. Here are just a few more examples.

David Frost, Sandy Lyle, Steve Jones, Jodie Mudd Billy Mayfair, Tom Purtzer, Jim Gallagher Jr. John Huston, Steve Pate, Steve Flesch, Chad Campbell, Jeff Maggert Roger Maltbie, Dan Pohl,

The list really just goes on and on. Some golfers went into prolonged slumps and made brief comebacks. The one that comes to mind in this catagory is Cory Pavin. After winning the US Open his game went south for a long time. I think this is what makes this game  goofy for just about everybody no matter what level of golf you achieve. One thing is for sure, it is definitely mystifying.                            

Today’s post is going to be different than originally planned. I will expain next week. I am going to discuss a stat on tour that I have mentioned before, that I find very interesting. I am a big baseball fan and of course stats are at the heart of the game.Stats are used in baseball to help teams play better and win more games. The PGA tour keeps stats now, but certainly not as long as baseball. . There is one stat that Dave Pelz mentions in is putting books, that PGA pros make 50% of their putts from 6 feet. I have never seen anyone dispute this stat and it has been around a long time. However, how many times during the last round of the tournament have you seen a graphic on Sunday about the leader of the tournament or someone close to the lead, that says he has made all of his putts from 7 feet. Just as recently as Big Phil’s victory in Phoenix,  he was something like 24 for 24 on putts from 7 feet or less. Now granted that accounts for putts of 2 and 3 feet, but even if he had only 10 putts from 6 to 7 feet, he made them all. That means that someone is close to 0 for ten in order to make the 50% average. I would say, that it is a fair assumption, that the guys that are at the 0 or 1 for 10 level are probably missing the cut. What, if any conclusions can be drawn from such stats. Despite all the ball striking hoopla is the real reason that people win or lose on the PGA tour is the ability fo make 6 foot putts. I am not saying it is, but it is food for thought. I would think this less if the winner was making 75% of his 6 foot putts. That would mean that the poorer putter would be making 25% to get to the 50% tour average. I think it would be fair to say that over the course of 36 holes that a player would have about 10 putts between 5.5 and 6.5 feet. With the best and the worse 9 to 10 strokes apart, there is the cut line. Now what can the everyday player take from such a stat. Lets face it, if a pro is making all his 6 foot putts I don’t think he is making them by letting them die in the hole. You can’t bang 6 foot putts into the back of the hole, but I think its time to take a new attitude about this length of putt and hit them in with more authority. I also think this shows that the pros are not afraid to shoot a high number. These pros that are in the less than 10% range maybe missing the cut one week but  maybe the next week they are in the hunt. They know in the early going they  have to make this length putt to get into contention, and to hell with the consequences. Having said all that I still not too sure about the meaning of such diverse stats.However, what kind of scores would you rather shoot. Four rounds between 78 and 82, or rounds like this, 86,71,84, and 70. So when you are watching the golf on Sunday be looking for that phenomenal stat, 100% makes on putts of 6,7, or sometimes even 8 feet or less. Remember the tour average is 50%. Back to goofiness next week. Although that stat is pretty goofy, don’t you think?           

For the next few weeks, I am going to discuss the things, that I think make this game so goofy. This week will be famous swing changes. Everybody gets worked up, when a big time player changes equipment, like Rory has just done. I say no big deal. Equpment can be made to any specs these players want. What I find  more fasinating, is when great players change their coaches and swings. The guy that started it all, and to me, the only one that really made the right descision, was Nick Faldo. Faldo was nothing more than a middle of the road European tour player who had blown a couple of major championships and had been given the moniker, Nick Foldo by the wonderful British press. Then after a major revamping of his swing, Faldo became the No 1 player in the world and won six major championships. The greatest swing changer of all time of course is Tiger Woods. He has had four swing changes. We will call his first swing his college swing. This swing would only be able to win him one NCAA individual title, three straight U.S. Amateur titles, and one Masters title by a paltry margin of 12 strokes. I have often wondered what would have happened, if he would have just stayed with that swing. However, after the Masters he and Harmen sat down and decided “Hey lets change that screwed up swing”. So off they went and after a couple of slow years,(remember that), Tiger went on a tear. From August of 1999 to the end of 2003 he won 7 majors and 33 total PGA tournaments, duing the Harman era. Then they had a falling out, so sad. Then comes Hank( I’m going to be taking notes for my back stabbing book) Haney. Again, after a couple of slow years when everybody was saying” you should have never left Butch, you should have never left Butch”, Tiger went on to win 6 majors and 32 PGA tournaments, from 2004 until 2009. What a difference a coach makes.  Then after Tiger crashed his SUV, and there was the rumor that Haney tampered with the brakes(Just kidding), Tiger has had to go to his fourth swing with Sean Foley. What has happened? Tiger has had a slow couple of years. What a shock. People are still talking about Harmon . Well, let’s look at Harmon, and some other famous players, who have come to him. First off big Phil. Phil has been with Harmon since 2007. How has he done. Twelve wins and one major. The six years before Harmon, twelve wins and three majors. Greg Norman went to Harmon after almost winning 5 major championships in a row but could only muster one, the British Open. After Harmon one major the British Open again and Harmon was his guru during his final round collapse at the 1996 Masters and that was essentially, the end of Greg Norman. Two of the more amazing swing changes in recent years has been Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell. Harrington won the 2007 British Open and then followed that up with a repeat win in 2008 and then won the 2008 PGA. Then you read about him going through a swing change. Same thing with McDowell, he wins the 2010 U.S. Open and beats Tiger in one of those end of season world championship events and then he changes his swing. What the hell is this? It is easier to figure out choking. It is the heat of the moment. But this is a guy sitting down for breakfast with the box of wheaties,  with his picture on it, just after winning a major championship and thinks, you know I think I am going to change my swing. If that doesn’t make this game goofy, nothing will, but we are just getting started.       

All right, we are into February and hopefully the 2013 golf season is just around the corner. I have been discussing what I consider the real controling factor in the golf swing, the turning of the shoulders. In order to accomplish this we just make our golf swing with the arms folded across the chest and then repeat the procedure with the golf club in hand. One little trick to expedite this is to have the golf club against your chest, being held by the fold of the 2 elbows and then just take the club with your hands  and make a golf swing.  One swing with the club going across your chest and then one regular swing with the club in your hands. Now here is what I expect to happen and what I hope to accomplish in the 2013 golf season.

I expect my ball striking to continue to be good, if not better in 2013.  I do not look at this as an experiment any more. This is a better way of going about hitting the golf ball. Remember this is a muscle thing not a technique thing. You can apply the shoulder swing to any method you want. Stack and Tilt, Natural Golf, Harmon, Haney, Leadbetter,or any other method that catches your fancy.

The one thing I did not do with this method is really get into working the golf ball, which I think is essential to really good scoring. My basic shot with this method was a slight fade and I really did not get into drawing the ball.  That will be the first objective this year is to get back to drawing and fading the golf ball.

The second objective will be developing a solid reliable chipping and putting method. Naturally during the winter rest away from golf, I have been working on some ideas and unique techniques which will be tested early this year. That will be one of the keys to my early scoring, or lack of scoring. As you well know I used many swing things that had high hopes and then went to the invisible trash can.

It will be just a matter of time now, and I will be hitting the links again. Over these next couple of weeeks or so I thought I would just have some fun and write about what makes this game so God awlful goofy. Lets hope for an early spring.