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.
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.
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.
The Goofy Game of Golf Executing the Answer
Naturally it is winter in the Burgh and not much happening on the golf front. In order to execute the answer you have to play the game and that is not happening in the near future. I thought I would write about two subjects today. The first one is one of the things I tried this past year to connect the mind and the body that work for a least a few weeks and to discuss a little more about trying to execute the answer in the short game and why I think the grip is the ticket.
The thing I did about in the middle of the summer that worked pretty well for awhile, was to swing at the ball as hard as I could, while maintaining my balance. Now I didn’t do any Happy Gilmore swings, but I went after the ball pretty hard. Let’s face it I thought this was the ultimate mind body connection. The body is always wanting to swing hard, but it is the mind that is telling us to keep it smooth, and at less than full throttle. Sam Snead said he felt he swung at about 85% of his power. Well for about 4 weeks I went at it full throttle, and the results were not bad. What was amazing, was I didn’t notice a great deal of increase distance with my woods, but I was hitting my irons a lot further. I would hit my 8 iron about 170 yards, with accuracy. I was scoring pretty well and I felt the game was really becoming fun. I don’t remember all the reasons I quit doing it, but I do remember it became physically taxing, and it was getting hard to control distances and finesse anything. For awhile though, the mind and the body were really connected.
Here is the reason that I think the grip may be the key in finding your that day short game and putting method. Lets look at all the putting methods. Here are the basics: The long putter, the belly putter, left hand low, claw grip, split grip, and for a lack of a better term the conventional method. There have been probably other bizarre methods, but with the exception of possibly the belly putter, these methods have one thing in common. They all change the position of the hands on the putter. One thing that may be interesting would be to use a 36 inch long putter but grip in the same way the players grip the long putter. It would be like a reverse claw grip. You would take your left hand and grip the top of the putter with the elbow pointing at the target, and the right hand would be more or less in the standard grip. This could be a solution for these guys once the long putter is banned. In trying to find your that day putting or chipping method you would grip the club in the most comfortable position for that day and the grip would change from round to round. Only time will tell if I have lost my mind, but it did work for 27 holes. I will be in San Diego next week to meet the new grandchild and who knows might get a little golf in. See you next week.
The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer
Today I am going to discuss the attempts I have made on trying to find the “that day method” for both the short game and putting. I am talking about shots that are just around the green and not pitches of around 30 yards or more. For those shots I think you can still use your full swing method for the day. Speaking of short game how about Tiger Woods. I have only listened to a few of the comments concerning Tiger’s short game problems, but I have not heard anybody say the dreaded word. Tiger has the chip yips. Some of the commentators have said that it could be mental. DO YOU YA THINK? As a man who has battled the chip yips off and on for the last 2 years, you can practice all you want Mr. Woods but you have got the biggest challenge of your career coming up. Maybe Tiger can find the cure for the yips and help all of mankind. Wouldn’t that be something. I guess the other question might be would he tell us?
Now getting back to finding the best method for shots around the green and putting on the day you are on the golf course. There are some unique challenges. On one occasion, I started off my round with some great ball striking and hit the first 10 greens in regulation. The 11th hole was a 190 yard par 3 and i pulled my shot about 5 yards left of the green. So here I was 11 holes into the round and my first short game shot of the round. Since I have started trying to execute the answer in all three phases of the game, my putting has been mediocre. What was interesting is, that I never had a really bad day on the greens, one of those 38 to 40 putt rounds which really ruins the way beer tastes. My chipping and short pitching around the greens was also just mediocre and yips were few and far between. Both chipping and putting are very simple procedures with very little body movement, unlike the golf swing which has a multitude of body actions which can give many feels.
What I am about to explain I only did the last 27 holes of golf I played and I usually don’t reveal this kind of stuff without a lot more playing time doing something. This is more of an up to date progress report and this could change as new season develops. My last round in San Diego my chipping and short pitching were excellent to good and then my last 9 hole round was my best putting round since finding the answer. In previous rounds trying to find my “that day method” to chip and putt always involved trying get a feel of what my body was doing just like my full swing. What helped get better results in those two areas of the game was to get a feel for what my hands were doing. I used a unique grip in both the short game and putting. I’m not going into what these grips were, just yet, but I allowed my hands to do what they wanted to on the golf club just like I allowed by body to to what it wanted to do on the first swing of the day. These grips were nothing exotic or weird, they were just different from the way I usually gripped the club when I putted and chipped.
Here we are on Super Sunday again and just like Christmas, since the Steelers aren’t playing I will be glad when its over. Unlike last year, I don’t see a blowout but defense wins championships and unfortunately I think Seattle wins it 20-10. I would say unfortunately too, if I thought New England was going to win. See you next week.
The Goofy Game of Golf Executing the Answer
This week I am going to delve into the full swing, and how to go about finding your that day golf swing. What is interesting is, that since I have found the answer, I have had very few really bad ball striking days. I have had enough of an issue at times, that I think I have found a process that will get be back on track faster than usual. This process goes against some of things that have been said about how to manage a round. The standard advice is to play the mistake. In other words if you start out by slicing the ball, then you should just play the slice. Of course it is just the opposite if you are drawing the ball a little too much. Then the advice is just to aim a little more right to allow for the right to left movement. I have found many times, if I follow this advice I just wind up hitting a bigger curve. Let’s go back to two times my ball striking was not good.
The first one was about 6 weeks ago at Lindenwood and I started out the round by hitting everything high and to the right. Now there can be lots of reasons why you hit this shot. This is one of the most common misses we see on the PGA tour. I do not think it is important to know why this shot happens. Look, if Greg Norman and Butch Harmon couldn’t figure it out, who am I to try? It took me 8 holes to come out of my funk and what got me out of it? I tried to hit ball from right to left and all of a sudden I started hitting the ball much better. Essentially what did I do? Even though I was hitting everything right, obviously in order to hit a hook I started to aim to the right. In other words I was aiming at my miss and hitting a draw. Now I could go into a lot of swing theory here on why this worked, but who cares.
My next opportunity to try out the theory was in my last full round at Benardo Heights Country Club in San Diego. I did not have my clubs and I was playing in a little best 3 out of 4 event and the first hole is a solid 400 yard+ par 4 that doglegs to the right. With the normal first tee chitters. I pulled my first drive left with not much hook on it, got a decent kick to the right and was still in play but about 230 from the center of the green. I only had a 17 degree fairway wood in the bag. I did not hesitate for one second. I aimed about 20 yards left of the green, took my “normal” swing, making sure I stayed down through the ball and hit this nice little low fade that rolled right up into the middle of the green. The next hole I aimed a little left again and hit the ball right where I was aiming. On the next hole a par 3, I aimed left again and hit it left of the green, right where I was aiming. The rest of the round I aimed right at the target and hit the ball pretty straight all day. On my good shots I was aware of what my body was doing and did not try to change anything, even though at times I thought my swing was out of balance.
Let’s go though the process. You must approach the first tee with an open mind and no preconceived swing thoughts. Picture your shot from behind the ball. Take the opening practice swing and feel the motion of your body. Get comfortable over the ball, pick out your target and make a swing being aware of what the swing felt like but not trying to control it. If the results are good, then continue with that feeling and do not over analyze it. If you hit it left then aim left on your next shot. If you hit it right then aim right on the next shot. I feel this is correcting the problem not playing for it. We usually all have a basic shot. Some of us hit the fade and some of us hit the draw. For me it is the fade. So if I have to aim left of the target on my next shot then I feel that I will take a normal swing. But if I have to aim right of the target then I feel have to try and draw the ball. It should be the opposite for someone who normally draws the ball. I have not had a lot of time to further prove this process, so how I feel about finding your that day golf swing may change, but for right now I think this is it. So if you are in a golfable area give it a try and let me know. Next week I will discuss putting and the short game which I have had even less time to figure out but I think I may have something. Will also discuss some more things about the full swing. See you next week.
The Goofy Game of Golf Executing the Answer
The blog is back after a month, and a busy month it has been. Like all stories, lets start at the beginning. The last blog was when I had just arrived in San Diego, the Sunday before Christmas. The Christmas holiday was great and watching those grandkids opening their gifts was wonderful. Christmas is definitely for kids. On the Saturday after Christmas I got to play golf at the Bernardo Heights Country Club. What is wild is that I started the 2014 season there, and now I have ended it at the same golf course. Even stranger, I shot the same score, 76 both times. That however, is where the similarity of the rounds end. In my opening round of the year I hit the ball only fair at best but had a great day putting, making about 8 putts of 8 feet or more for par. The December 27th round I hit the ball beautifully but only putted so so, and missed some really good birdie looks, and shot the same score. I may have found the answer, but this does not make the game any less goofy.
I arrived back at the Burgh on December 28th, and got emerged into the college football bowl season and watched all 39 bowl games. It was a wild and wooly bowl season with plenty of great plays and some pretty strange coaching decisions. The two toppers were the decision of the one coach in one of the lesser bowl games to ice the kicker on the extra point by wasting 2 timeouts with 50 seconds left in the game when a field goal would have won the game, when his team got the ball back. Needless to say the extra point was made. The team with only one time out could not get into field position to win the game, and then went on to lose the game in overtime. The other one, was where Baylor had a 41 to 27 lead over Michigan State with about 4 minutes left in the game. Instead of trying to milk some time off the clock, Baylor tried to get a “bigger win”, even going for it on 4th down on the MSU 45 yard line. This allowed MSU to come back and win the game 42-41. Of course, the big highlight, was my Ohio State Buckeyes winning the first college football play off and becoming national champions. I must admit, I didn’t think they would beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game, let alone go all the way. Even the third string quarterback didn’t bother me as much as the Buckeye defense. For whatever reason, that defense just came alive in those last three games. It was one great way to top off the bowl season. In the midst of all the football, I managed to play 9 holes of golf on January 4th in balmy 55 degree temperatures but with some very strong winds. Having my best putting day since finding the answer, I managed to shoot an even par 35.
And now for the big news. On January 16th 2015, Carson Michael Gloff, my third grand child came into this world kicking and screaming. After a brief visit to the neonatal ICU of 4 hours mom and grandson are doing great. I am truly blessed. As the blog will get back into the full swing, no pun intended, I will discuss things I have done in trying to execute the answer. Some have been more tested than others, but I am going to discuss them all. I will discuss each facet of the game, the full swing, the short game, and putting. See you next week.
The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer
Another two round week, with the weather barely golf able. The rounds were not quite as good as the previous weeks but not bad. I shot 77 at Fort Cherry on Tuesday and a 78 at Scenic Valley. Both days the temps were in the low to mid 40’s and today there was a slight mist in the air. The wind was not bad on either day. The ball striking continues to be very good to down right excellent, but the short game and putting continue to be a problem for various reasons.
First, let’s discuss the good stuff , the ball striking. Going into each round with an open mind, and no pre round mindset has worked extremely well. This has helped me approach each shot with an even more open mind, and my decision making process, while not perfect, has improved dramatically. It has allowed me to totally commit to each individual shot. Let me sight one example in todays round. The 8th hole at Scenic is a downhill par 3 of about 170 yards. Today the blue tee was up and the pin was on the front of the green. It was about 160 to the pin. It was cold and damp and what wind there was, was against. On a normal day this would be no more than an 8 iron. With the cold and the dampness I felt that even a 7 iron would have to be hit hard to get there. However I thought the 6 iron was too much club. Usually when you take too much club you have a tendency to swing too easy which ruins the shot. I did two things to manage the shot. I decided to take a 3/4 swing and to play the ball just a touch forward to get a little more height on the shot. My thinking was that by hitting the 6 iron a little higher, it would help shorten its distance even more with the wind in my face. The shot felt right, and I executed it well, and the ball hit just past pin high, 15 feet left of the pin. As the day went on and I got colder, I went back to that flatter swing the last time I got cold, and continued to hit the ball well. This makes a couple of good points. Looking for that day swing does not mean that you can not go back to a swing that was working before and then failed. Again you have to let this happen not make it happen. Secondly, you can make some changes in the middle of the round if conditions dictate it. That can be something that you had done previously. It really boils down to being open to what your body is trying to tell you.
Now putting and the short game is another story. I actually had a pretty good short game today, maybe the best, since finding the answer. The putting was mediocre at best and I don’t feel any closer to executing the answer in these phases of the game. I literally froze up today which led to a skulled wedge on 17 and a 3 putt on 18. I don’t know if there is going to be much playing time left this year. I am leaving for San Diego on the 21st to spend Christmas with the grandkids. There is an outside chance for some golf in the early part of the week, with temperatures getting close to 50 but it looks like this could be accompanied with a lot of rain. Even if I don’t get to play, there is still a lot to write about the answer, see you next week.
The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer
This week I am going to discuss how to try to apply the answer to putting and the short game. Originally this was just going to be a putting blog, but the weeks play changed all that. At first I thought I was going to write about how trying to execute the answer in putting and the short game could be different than trying to execute it in the full swing. This week changed all that. I played two rounds this week. Lets look at each round in depth on how it applies to the answer.
On Wednesday under some brutal conditions, 38 degrees with a pretty good breeze and some periodic mist, I managed to shoot a 75, although it was from the white tees at Scenic Valley which is pretty short, but considering the conditions, this was a really good round. I developed a swing that day that was very flat, but got me turning well, even though my body was pretty frozen. I had my best putting day, since finding the answer, by making some good putts on the back nine to birdie 3 of the last five holes, and even though they were wrapped around a double bogey, I shot one under on the back. I found a particular putting method that worked really well that day. There are two things that make putting different in trying to execute the answer. Putting itself, although relatively simple, can have dozens of ways to make a stroke. Lets face it, one of the things I am not going to do in trying to find my “that day swing” is to put my left hand low. Plus putting results are more black and white. Its either a miss or a make. If you recall last week when I started my nine hole round, I hit a 7 iron with a particular swing, and I considered the shot while not great, very acceptable. I continued to swing that way the rest of the round with good results. I also felt because putting is different, that a successful technique maybe tranferred from one day to the other.
Well today’s round proved me wrong. I had a horrible day putting and my short game was even worse, which led to an 81. The method that I had used on Wednesday failed miserably today and some preconceived short game ideas also were busts. My long game today was again pretty solid with a swing that found me making a solid move to my right side ala Curtis Strange. I did find a putting method on the back. that got me back to shooting a 38, highlighted by an eagle on the par 5 tenth hole.
What are the conclusions here? You must allow all three phases of your golf game to just happen, and not try to make them happen. This is much more difficult to do when it comes to putting and the short game. When you make a full swing there are many things happening to your body. You are turning, twisting, shifting, changing direction and cocking your wrists. All these movements can be felt and lead to you finding your that day swing. In the short game and putting there is not near the movement involved. So it is much more difficult to execute those aspects of the game with an open mind and not revert back to some previous technique. Its even harder to forget what was successful in the previous round. However, you must do this if are going to go into each round with that open and free mind that will allow all three parts of your golf game to function at its best for that day. A very productive week and there is an outside chance for some more golf this week, as I plunge forward to execute the answer.
The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer
This week we are going to discuss the long game, and how to apply the answer. This was a perfect week to show how the answer works. I played 18 holes on Tuesday, 9 holes on Saturday and 18 holes today. I am going to take the week in chronological order and see how I applied the answer to each round with the full swing. Remember the answer is to find your “that day golf swing” as quickly as possible.
On Tuesday I had my first unique experience since finding the answer. I started off the round with some poor ball striking. I was hitting everything to the right and it took me until the 9th hole to find my “that day swing”. What got me back on track was to hit all shots, beginning on number 9, which was an uphill par 3, with a draw. That for me is unusual, because my basic shot is a fade. Once I started hitting everything from right to left, I hit some quality shots to play the last 10 holes 2 over par, and was able to salvage a 79. Even though it was tempting, I knew in my next round, that I would not start hitting shots from right to left or even try. This is the new key in playing golf. The problem with this round was that it took me too long to find my swing.
On Saturday I had some time to play 9 holes and the first hole is a par 3. I tried to get a feel for the day with the first swing. I hit a 7 iron and it was not a bad shot and found the green about 30 feet from the pin. I noticed with the first swing that I seemed to take the club a little back inside more than I usually do but since the shot was pretty good, not great, but acceptable, I allowed the club to take a similiar path on my next drive and proceeded to have a pretty good ball striking day and managed to shoot 39 with some mediocre putting. Again I walked off the 9th green knowing that this would not be my swing for tomorrow.
Today with temperatures in the mid to upper 50’s, and a moderate to gusty wind, I stood on the first tee with a helping wind, and just blistered the opening tee shot. What I noticed on this swing, is that I had a full wind up with some pretty good wrist cock, maybe too much wrist cock, and a little bit of a pause at the top. I kept that feeling all day and had one of my best driving days of the year. I made a slight adjustment at address, during the round where I got my weight distributed toward the middle of my feet, and had a great ball striking day. With a passable short game and some decent, but not great putting I shot a one over 73. I know I will have to approach the next round with that same open mind and not try to dupicate the feel of this great round. I did not try to control the wrist cock today, even though at times, I think I over did it, but that little natural pause made all the difference in the world. I did not try to consciously do the pause, it was something that just happened today and I went with it, with great results. I know now to just forget about it for the next round. So there you have it, the answer in action. Obviously, if I get off to a bad start, I will have to find that swing quicker but I have some ideas on that. Maybe if I never get off to a bad ball striking day again, I won’t have to worry about it HAH!
It looks like there is a chance to get one or two rounds in next week. Even if I don’t, next weeks blog will be, how to apply the answer to putting. Things get a little tougher there. See you next week.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 