Category: Golf

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

It’s a Saturday blog coming from San Diego, and it has been a busy week with lots of grandkid activity. Heading back to the Burgh tomorrow when the golfing will get back into full swing again. This week I thought I would write about two subjects that are always mind boggling and complex.

The first is the chip yips which I have been controlling  quite nicely this year, so far. Nobody is going to confuse me with Phil but I have been quite functional around the greens this year. I can contribute this to about 3 things. First I have changed chipping philosophies. I now try to get the ball on the ground as quickly as possible. I also use different clubs ranging from my 6 iron to my lob wedge. This differs from when I would use nothing but my 54 degree wedge and open and close it to accomplish the desired shot.  I use to also look for a spot on the green that had a dip in it to fly the ball to. This is the Pelz theory of chipping in that if you hit a little short of the center of the dip that you would hit the downslope which would help propel the ball forward. If you hit the ball a little beyond the center of the dip, the ball would hit the upslope and this would deaden the ball and it would not roll as far. This served me well for many years. The second thing I did is to use various grips chipping. The one that has served me best was my putting grip, but I have used other grips which have helped. Finally I corrected my yip miss. Maybe I was lucky that my yip miss was always the same. My chip yip was always  a vicious pull to the left which flew the ball low and hard and way past the hole. I simply started aiming left of my target and for whatever reason, I was able to hit a quality chip which at least ended up within shouting distance of the hole. This goes back to finding my that day golf swing. where if my miss is to the right then I aim right on my next shot and try to hook it. If my miss is to the left then I aim left for my next shot and hit a fade.

The second subject is good old putting. I don’t have any answers for putting, with this being more of an update on where my putting is and what I plan to do about it. The best word to describe my putting since I have been trying to execute the answer is mediocre. This is better than awful but it has to get better than this if I am ever going to score. There has been so much written about putting over the years that I am willing to bet that it encompasses at least half of all golf instruction literature. Again I am going to change some putting philosophies. First I am going to change putters based on putting performance from round to round. I use to stick with the same putter for most of a golf season. Second I am going to be more open to more methods to execute the stroke itself. Third I am going to be more bold on getting the ball to the hole. We will see what happens.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

The blog is coming from sunny San Diego with some great times with the grandkids. I did manage to play two rounds this week, on Tuesday and Wednesday. My putting was not very good all week, and at the end of the round on Tuesday, my ball striking was just as bad. This led to an 81 on Tuesday at Village Green, and a 76 at Indian Run on Wednesday. My ball striking got back to normal on Wednesday but a very bulky putter led to a round of 13 pars and 5 bogies. Finding the “that day putting stroke” is turning out to be a major obstacle at this point. My iron play improved this week and that is what I am going to write about today and the reason behind it .

This turns out to be another aspects of your “that day golf game”. We our all told to know the distance that you hit each iron. I did discuss this in an earlier blog, about how the lie of the ball can effect how far the ball will fly with each shot. How the ball his sitting in the fairway and rough can effect how far the ball will fly anywhere from 10 to 20 yards. If the lie of the ball is uphill, downhill, sidehill, above or below your feet, can also effect how far the ball is going to go. Now I think I have found a third factor, which I am going to call the  feeling of the day. Another way of putting this is, how do you feel that day. I am not talking about health. I am talking about how do you and your swing feel. We all go through this where there are some days where the swing just feels sluggish. I call this my old wash woman swing. Then there are days when the swing feels powerful and effortless, and the ball is really flying. I had this really brought home to me this week. At the end of my round at Village Green I was getting tired and my ball striking suffered because I tried to fight it. Then I next day I was hitting my irons very solid and they going at least 10 yards greater than normal. In the beginning of the round I tried to resist this, by thinking that there is no way I am hitting the ball this far. This cost me some strokes early in the round.   Let’s look a one club my 7 iron. This is a club I normally hit about 165 yards. On Tuesday at the end of the round I was lucky if I could hit that club 150. Then the very next day I easily hit it 170 plus. This is another aspect of finding your that day golf game and that is finding your that day distances. It is finding those distances as quickly as possible and excepting those distances know matter what they may be. It goes back to starting your round with an open mind and accepting your that day  golf game and not trying to make it something it is not.   Next week the blog will be coming from San Diego again with some more gems. No golf this week as its grandkids time and that’s easy to execute.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

This week was blah, in more ways than one. About mid week I came down with a cold and this affected the weekend play. What I am amazed about is the part of your game that is affected the most. I drove the ball well, all weekend but it was poor putting that led to an 82 at South Park on Saturday and an 81 at Scenic Valley on Sunday.  My mid week was highlighted by a nice 75 at Scenic Valley in some very high wind conditions. It was probably playing in such wind chill conditions, that led me to getting a cold. Wednesday was a very rainy day so it was only a 3 round week. The weather and my health is improving rapidly so I will be playing tomorrow and Wednesday. Then on Saturday I will be heading for San Diego to celebrate my grand daughters 8th birthday. Golf will be on the back burner for the next couple of weekends. The next two blogs will be coming from San Diego.

So with this little break coming I thought I would reflect on how I think things are going so far this year. I have played 21 rounds of golf  this spring. I have played in some nasty conditions at times and other times the weather as been ok. I am driving the ball as well as I ever have. I am in a little slump with my irons, but I think that my good ball striking has gone to my head a little, and I am trying to be way too precise with my distances and this is causing too much tension in the swing. My chipping has been good with hardly a yip this year. My putting has been erratic as ever and trying to find that days putting method has been the biggest challenge so far this year. After this 12 day break from the game, things will begin to escalate on all fronts with the game. I shall know within the next 3 months if I am going to be able to execute the answer at all aspects of the game.  Even though I think I am improving at every level of my game, the numbers do not lie, and I have not produced the desired results, quite yet.  See you next week, coming from San Diego.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

For various reasons, some not golf related it’s been two weeks since the last blog. The golf as been pretty good over that time and two tournaments have been played. My two rounds leading up to the tournament on April 12th, I shot a 76 at Scenic Valley and a 77 at South Park. Then came the tournament at Butlers Woodside on the Sunday. I got off to a shaky start with 4 straight bogies on some easy holes but then I righted the ship to play the next 11 holes even par. I then went on to stagger to a bogey, bogey, double bogey finish, which knocked me out of the money. I must say I was disappointed in the overall performance, but I think I discovered the problem.

This past week I was able to play 3 rounds leading up to yesterday’s tournament at Totteridge. I shot 78 at Indian Run, 77 at Riverview, and 75 at South Park. This time I played much better in the tournament and finish with 9 straight pars to shoot 76 and just missed the money by two places. I particularly liked the way I finished.

How does this all compute in trying to execute the answer. The tournament play was a very good learning experience. Under the gun, you are much more critical of your swing, which does not help you find your that day golf swing. This was my problem in the first tournament. Even with everything I have written about trying to find your that day golf swing, I was trying to control my swing to what I thought it should be and not what it was that day. You have to like your that day swing, no matter what it happens to be, if you are going to find your that day swing. That also goes for putting and chipping. Most of my bad shots in both tournaments were not swing errors or even address errors, as much as they were mental errors. Most of the mental errors were not trusting the club selection for approach shots, or actually having the wrong club in my hand for the shot. I think many times we confuse swing flaws with this mistake. Its amazing how far you can hit a particular iron when the adrenaline is flowing. That was my basic problem. I had too much club in my hand and many times I thought I did not have enough club, because of certain conditions, like slope and wind. This led to some horrible irons shots that had nothing to do with any particular technique. My chipping and putting were more than adequate during both events. It did take me a little time to find my that day stroke but I feel like I am making some progress in that area. My chipping was really good yesterday, using my putting grip.

There is no doubt that tournament golf is it’s own unique animal. I won’t be playing another tournament for about a month now due to other commitments and a trip to San Diego the first week of May. I feel progress is being made and we will see what the next week brings. The weather is going to get cooler but I am hoping to get 4 rounds in. See you next week.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Executing the Answer

Another three round week, and again a repeat of the previous two weeks. The mid week rounds were good, 77 and 75, with the weekend round on Saturday this time, being bad shooting an 81. This was a good week in many regards. Putting was about as good as its ever been, since trying to execute the answer. There was one very good lesson learned this week.

I fell into the trap this week of falling in love with my driver ball flight. This goes against all the principles of trying to find your that day golf swing. I was hitting the greatest little power fade off the tee for the entire week. I found myself really relying on that ball flight pattern during the round despite what my opening drive was. This part of my game worked really well, as I hit many fairways and had good distance. I did this even when my opening drive was fairly straight with maybe a baby fade at the end. I kept to my plan of having an open mind and feel on the opening tee shot, but then kept going to fade way too quickly. What I should have been doing was playing a  straight drive based on the opening swing and result. This resulted in having an adverse affect on my fairway game. In fact most of my irons and fairway woods on my 77 round I hit with a draw. In my other two rounds I  was not hitting very crisp or accurate shots. My 75 round was the result of some very good putting. What’s interesting here is that I had no trouble of finding my that day swing in the fall and sticking with it, which brings up another good point. Those of us who have to go through the winter lay off , in this case for me was 2 months, we often emphasize getting our golf muscles into shape. There is no doubt that this is a good thing, but we need to get our golf thinking back in the groove, too.   This week, the weather in the middle of the week is looking very iffy, but hopefully I can still get a couple of rounds in between the thunderstorms. I will be playing in my first tournament of the year this Sunday. I better get my brain in shape fast.

My Masters pick: J. B. HOLMES he’s going back to back.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the AnswerI

Another Monday blog due to another busy week, and that darn NCAA basketball tournament. The golf week was a carbon copy of the week before with some solid play on Tuesday and Wednesday and then a big fat number on Sunday. The bad round Sunday was mostly brought about by the simple fact, that I broke a cardinal rule and did not dress warm enough. I know, I broke the number one mother rule,” you can always take it off but if you don’t have it with you, you can’t put it on”. Once I got cold I could not really swing that well and this led to an 83. There were some other problems but being cold was not good. The Tuesday and Wednesday rounds were solid with scores of 78 and 76. The Wednesday round finished strong, playing one under par for the last 7 holes. This was also the warmest stretch of play for the season, with temperatures in the mid 60’s  The month of March has been good as I have played 7 rounds so far, and there seems to be about a 50-50 chance of playing tomorrow. I feel I am making progress in all three phases of the game in executing the answer. Lets look at each one up to this point.

Ball Striking: This is still the best phase of the game so far. The thing that has happened since the start of the new season, is that I have a harder time not trying to grab onto an anchor or swing thought. This I am sure was brought about by the long lay off and just very rusty golf thinking in general. It’s particularly hard after a few errant shots. I have also hit some really horrible shots in the middle of some pretty good play.  I feel a lot of this will work out as season continues, and I play more. Sometimes I get into working the ball more than I should. Again this is an example of trying to force an issue. You have to let your that day ball striking determine how you are going to play a certain hole. If the draw or the fade is not in your repertoire that day, then don’t try to do it even if that is what is call for. Take a more conservative approach and just make a par.

Short Game: For chipping and short pitching, two things have really helped me. Visualizing the shot seems to be very important for the short shots, even more so than the long game and putting. Getting the ball on the ground faster seems to be the other key for success. Using different grips on different days is still something that I think helps in executing the stroke. I have used various grips, ranging from the normal grip to my putting grip to chip and pitch.

Putting: This phase of the game is the most difficult not to go back to the previous days  thought or technique. But success in putting is as fleeting as the long game.  I still think the grip is the real key here but time will tell. A lot of the issues in all three phases comes from just a lack of concentration. This really shows up in putting.

So there you have it, this week’s update on trying to execute the answer. The week coming up looks like there will be more golf to be  played. Let’s hope the progress will continue.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

The blog is a day late, because of good old March Madness, and a busy golf week, where I played 3 1/2 rounds. It was a very productive and learning week, for one so early in the season, so lets get to it

On Tuesday, I walked 9 holes at the Mt. Lebanon , under some harsh conditions, with temperatures in the low 40’s, and some strong winds. The very first tee, gave the example of thinking just a little too much, and not following the open mind plan. The first hole is a 160 yard slightly downhill par 3, that on this day was playing into a stiff wind. The first part of my thought process was very good. With the cold temps, and the strong against wind I took out my 7 wood on a hole I can hit with an 8 iron on a nice warm summer evening. But then I thought just a little too much. Instead of aiming dead at the pin, I thought with the first swing of the day, that I would be a little stiff, which would make me hit a little more of a fade than I usually do. I aimed about 5 yards left of the green, swung and hit it dead straight, 5 yards left of the green. The rest of day was not bad, but due to the conditions and a bulky putter the day was a ho-hum 5  pars and 4 bogeys.

On Wednesday, I went to Scenic Valley, and even though the temps were only in the mid 40’s,  plenty of sunshine made this day almost pleasant to play. My ball striking that day just evolved into playing a little draw, especially with the irons. My shots were going just slightly right to left. Since this was not a major misdirection, I decided to play the draw, instead of what I would usually do for shots that go way left. In a previous blog, I wrote that I would aim left and my swing would make an automatic correction. Since this slight draw was acceptable I played for it and this worked quite nicely.  I made 3 birdies but followed each birdie up with a bogey on the next hole. The one thing that cost me this day was that the wind was in a unique direction for this course and I failed to allow for it.The perfect example of being asleep at the wheel. My short game and putting were ok and managed to shoot a 77

On Saturday I went to Village Green and with temps in the 50’s under overcast skies and gusty winds I managed to play a very good round. My ball striking was spot on and I sunk a long putt on the very first hole for a birdie and I made a lot of 3 to 6 foot putts and shot a very nice 3 over 74. I made some poor decisions down the stretch due to wind and maybe just a little fatigue. I hit some great approach shots and if I had been putting a little better I might have shot even or better.

Yesterday it was back to Scenic Valley, with temps barely in the 40’s but with plenty of sunshine and not all that bad wind wise. However I was out of sync all day, and with the combination of some bad breaks, bad thinking, mediocre putting, and losing the concept of executing the answer I shot a lackluster 82. What do I mean by losing the concept. For the first time since finding the answer, I got back into the problem of trying to make my body do something, instead of allowing it to do what was necessary to hit the shot.  For about 11 and a half holes I was striking the ball pretty well. Then I got into some very poor ball striking for 2 and a half of the next 4 holes. Most of this was due to playing the wrong type of shot and then making my body move to what I thought I had to do in order to execute the shot. I should have kept more target oriented and paid attention to what my body did to play the shot.

After this week, this is what I have discovered. The short game and putting are going to require more than just the grip to get some real improvement. The grip is still a flexible and important part of finding your best short game and putting method but there is going to be a little more than that involved for sure. The early season shows how rusty your golf thinking can really be. I will have to do better in avoiding the trap of trying to fall back on what I was doing the day before. That was another reason for the poor score  on Sunday. Even though I already knew this, it is really hard not to do, especially early in the season. I have a new way of handling uneven lies, which there are plenty in western Pa. If this continues to work well, I will reveal it in a future blog. Despite the Sunday glitch the season has gotten off to a very nice start. My Saturday round was highlighted by an eagle chip in on the par 5 13th hole. This week looks good for some more golf on Tuesday and Wednesday. The weather get’s a little iffy toward the end of the week but we will wait and see. Progress is being made, I think, I hope , I pray, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! See you next week.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

Well, it is March 15th and the golf season has begun, with 18 holes of golf under some pretty brutal conditions, with temperatures in the upper 30’s, and just enough wind to make it just a bit colder. But you can tell spring fever is in full bloom, because when I left the course around 1 pm there were some 30 cars in the parking lot. It’s a good feeling when you  your not the only crazy dumb ass playing out there. Despite the conditions it was like I had never left the golf course. I drove the ball really well and the rest of the game stayed together enough to grind out a 78. I can’t say that I learned much on trying to execute the answer, but it was just real good to get out, and play some golf, after a two and half month lay off. I went into the round with my new open mind, but I must admit I went back to this little cold weather flat swing I developed late last year, playing under similar conditions, and it worked really well. It’s not to say that some old swing methods won’t work but again you don’t want to force the issue.  The weather is looking better in the beginning of the week so I am hoping to walk 9 holes tomorrow, play 18 Tuesday afternoon. The rest of the week is looking iffy but I might get another round in over the weekend. I am hoping to get the 8 courses in this year to get the number of courses I have played within 90 minutes of my house to the even number of a hundred. The round itself was boring with 12 pars and 6 bogies. Came close a couple of times getting the first birdie of the year but it was not to be. See you next week when hopefully I will have more to report on executing the answer.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

Well, it looks like the start of the  golf season may arrive this week.  The temperatures are headed for the 50’s and with some rain on Tuesday, the snow will hopefully wash away. This will be a golf season at the crossroads. I will prove the answer this year, or golf will take a much lower priority in the scheme of things in the coming years. In August the blog will mark its fifth anniversary. In July I will  mark my 40th anniversary of practicing veterinary medicine. In April I will “celebrate” my 65th birthday. With the exception of two years off this will mark my 58th season playing this goofy but wonderful game. I don’t do much but when I do  something I do it for a long time.

How long am I going to give trying to execute the answer. I figure by July I should have a pretty good idea, if this is really the answer to playing the best golf you can play, on the day that you play. I think the putting and short game are going to determine how much success I have. Speaking of putting and the short game, there is talk going around right now, that this may not be as important to scoring, as it once thought it was. This is being all brought about by a book called, Every shot counts or something like that. I am in the process of reading it right now. It is golf’s version of the book Moneyball. This is why you are seeing this new term “strokes gained” in various parts of the game. It’s a fairly complicated method of determining who is really  the best in each part of the game. I am in the middle of reading the book right now and even though telecasts are already using some of the terminology, I’m not too sure I buy into it at the moment. This could be just some way to tap into the success of the new way to evaluate baseball stats. When I finish the book I will give a much more in depth review with the exact title too. We will see how this golf season plays out very very shortly. See you next week.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Executing the Answer

Coming from San Diego this week, where I am missing some pretty brutal Pittsburgh weather but I will be going back on Tuesday. It does not look like golf in the Burgh anytime soon. The family is doing well and I am having a great time with the grandkids and the new addition is doing nothing but doing well. It’s great being a baby, eat and sleep, eat and sleep.

This week I thought I would write about some  things about the golf swing and clarify some things, on what it means to find your that day golf swing. The other way I like to put this is, how to play your best golf on the day that you play. How do we go about this?

The first thing is, you must go into each new round with an open mind. Now, most of the time this is going to mean that you can not fall back on what was working the day before. However, if you just can’t help yourself, because you just really liked this swing thought, go ahead and try it on the first tee. If it does not work then abandon it immediately. Pay attention to what your body did and remember the way to get back on track. If it went left, aim left on the next shot and if it went right aim right on the next shot. I went into this is in more detail in a previous blog.

Now some of you may be wondering, should you make some in round changes if you start out well and then start to hit some bad shots. The short answer is absolutely. It depends on what caused the bad shot. It may not be always a swing issue. Many pre shot circumstances can cause a poor shot. These can range from selecting the wrong club, the wrong type of shot or not paying attention to the lie of the ball. However, if you think your swing was bad, again make the above adjustments to get on track. The thing to remember is to be a results guy on the course. What I mean by that, is that during the round your swing may begin to do something that your not that pleased with. Its getting a little quick or you feel you are getting out of balanced at the finish. If the results are good,  do not let this bother you or try to correct it. This is the way your swing is behaving today  and let it happen. This again is where I think a preconceived swing thought gets you in trouble. You are trying to get your body to do something that it may have felt fine doing yesterday, or on the range but under the heat of the round does not want to do anymore.

As I wrote before, I am heading back to the Burgh and the miserable weather, with not much golf in the future. You have to play in order to execute the answer, so I don’t know when the next blog will be. I am working on some other projects, and if they inspire me I will be writing again. Each new round will be an adventure and hopefully I will be playing in the not to distance future. See you then.