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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Well, it’s been 25 days since the last blog, and a lot has happened. I have been able to play 8 rounds of golf, which makes 11 for the year. This is the most I have been able to play, this early in the season. Now, here are the scores, and hold on to your hats. 76, 90, 92, 94, 90, 85, 78. Yes, that’s right 4 straight rounds in the 90’s. I haven’t had a stretch like that since I was probably 13 yrs. old. Now, some of this was due to experimentation, but I have done this before, and never saw scores like this. The first 90 score even had 2 birdies. These scores could not be blamed on the weather. The conditions weren’t perfect but they weren’t that bad. The scores can not be blamed on early season rust. You can see, I shot a 76 which featured a one under 35 on the back nine. As usual there was something to be learned and there were some interesting facts from these horrific rounds.

The first thing was my over all reaction to these rounds. I did not fret or worry about them at all. You might think that this is real easy to do because it is early in the season. Let’s  see how you react, if you did this in June or July. But this is four straight rounds in the NINETIES. Two of the rounds were partially due to some horrendous putting of 40 putts each. It made me aware of how easy this can happen and how a prolonged slump can be just around the corner.

I don’t know if I really needed to be made more aware of this, but it really brought home the fact that it’s not where your good shots wind up but it’s where your bad ones go. During this 4 round stretch I hit a lot of quality shots, but I hit a lot of horrible shots, that ended up in hazards and entirely off the golf course. The quality shots caused some swing experiments to last longer than they should have.

Because of this bad stretch, I found a major swing flaw that I had, and I mean major. I will discuss this in a future blog, but let’s just say for now it started my small comeback in the last 2 rounds. The 78 was highlighted by quite a bizarre finish. The last 6 holes went like this: Birdie, Double Bogey, Birdie, Double Bogey, Par, and a 30 yard pitch in for an Eagle.

Lastly I would like to write about two golf related items. Naturally the Masters is coming up and I am anxious to watch it as much as anybody else. Do I think I know who is going to win? Hell no. My bold prediction is this. The scores will be high. Any time the Masters scoring record is threatened they set the course up to be impossible the next year. Just look it up. I don’t think this will be an exception. So expect another U. S. Open kind of Masters and I think that is a damn shame. Do I think the best golfer in the world will win the Masters. NO. WHY. Because the best golfer in the world won’t even be playing in the Masters, Lydia Ko. Chew on that for awhile.

 

 

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Today I am going to discuss the other two things that I thought had real potential to help one’s golf game, but turned out to be, just dust in the wind. The first one was the mind body connection. It was initiated by the old argument of how much is this game mental, and how much is it physical. My contention is that it is a 50-50 split, but there is a definite disconnect between the mind and the body in many instances, which will cause bad shots, or poor results. I discussed these instances about two years ago and I am not going to write about them today but the goal was to find a  way to keep the mind and the body connected. It was a fruitless effort, but one that I still think maybe worth pursuing. Then last year I tried to find what I called, your that day golf swing. In fact, I thought this was the answer. It went something like this. You should go into each round with an open mind, and not be influenced by what went well in the last round. I even had a cute little saying, “abandon that swing thought before it abandons you. Needless to say this was not the answer for various reasons that are not worth going into.

So that was the past and I am ready to move on from those acid trips,  as I head into the new golf year. What am I going to do now? Well, as usual I have some ideas. One of my many mantras has been 85% of all bad shots are caused by things you do before you swing. At the end of last year I amended that to 95%.  I am going to try to prove that theory. I am going to do some unique and different things at address that go against some traditional golf teaching but is much more aligned with the way the body is supposed to move. I am going to continue to take a hard look at how the wrists function during the golf swing.  I am beginning to feel that this is a big key on good solid ball striking. I have already played four 18 hole rounds, and three 9 hole rounds this year, and so far have made no progress on the above. I have been fine tuning some things, that may prove to productive.  As this year progresses the better I do, will mean that progress is being made and there will be more blogs. That is one thing about golf the numbers never lie.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Today I am going to discuss some of the things I have tried over the last five and a half years of writing this blog, which I hoped would make this game easier to play. There were three, that I named, the shoulder control swing, the mind body connection, and finding your that day golf swing, which I thought was the answer. Over the next 3 weeks as golf season get’s closer and closer I will  discuss each one, and where I went wrong.

First, the shoulder control golf swing, that I introduced in January of 2013. I even did two videos on the subject in March of 2014. The shoulder control swing is exactly what it says, in that the turning of the shoulders can control all aspects of the golf swing. By folding your arms across your chest, and making a golf swing, your legs will move perfectly, and of course with your arms folded across your chest, they are have nothing to do with your swing. I played with this swing for almost 2 years and had some really good success. I shot one of my best rounds, during the time of the blog, and struck the ball quite well. I had some problems trying to adapt this method to my short game and putting. I struck the ball well, but I did have problems trying to work the ball with this method, particularly trying to hit a draw. It was during the 2014 golf season that I began to abandon this method, although I would go back to it for brief times, even in the 2015 season. So what was the problem? It was those damn arms. Here is one of the simplest, and yet one of the  most frustrating keys to the golf swing. On the downswing, the belly button has to pass the golf ball before the arms. Do this and you will hit a quality golf. Here is where I made the mistake. Turning the shoulders does actually control the leg action. When you make a correct shoulder turn on the backswing and downswing the legs have to move in the correct way. They literally have no choice. When you release the arms from across your chest and place you hands on the golf club, the shoulders no longer can control those pesky arms. You have to make a conscious decision to do so. Bobby Jones said it best when discussing putting and keeping your body still. Trying to keep your body perfectly still, can create too much tension in the stroke, so he advocated relaxation, and if the body moved a little bit so be it. By TRYING to keep the arms out of the swing, and mostly being unsuccessful anyway, just became too much of a distraction.  The shoulder control swing is a great teaching aid and drill on how a golf swing should really feel, when the arms are not involved.

I played the first round of the year about 12 days ago at Scenic Valley, and if I was even having the slightest doubt that this was a goofy game, the first round of the year ended all of that. The first drive of year was a low right liner that went about 180 yard that left me no shot to the green so I laid up to the right about 20 yards short of the green. I hit a great pitch to about 3 feet and made the putt, par. The next hole I hit an ok drive, hit wedge in about 12 feet below the hole and made the putt, birdie. The third hole an uphill par 5 I hit a fair drive, a 2 iron over the water, and another wedge in about 15 feet and made that putt, birdie. Now I have played Scenic Valley a lot over the last 10 years and I have never been 2 under par after 3 holes and here I was 2 under on the very first round of the year in February with temps in the low 40’s. Needless to say I got back to reality in a hurry with a double bogey on the next hole, and did manage to scrape it around to break 80 with a 78. Had not hit a ball in 2 months and birdie 2 of the first three holes. Goofy, you got that right.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

The blog is back as the Burgh got it’s first real snow fall of the year, around 7 inches. Today I am going to look at the golfers who are closed or shut faced half way and closed at the top of their swing. There were 10 out of 61 pros who were both although 3 of those you could argue were close to square at the top. I am going to list the 7 who were definitely shut at the top. As you will see it is quite a diverse group.

The seven, in no particular order, are David Duval, Nancy Lopez, Arnold Palmer, Lexi Thompson, Paul Azinger, Lee Trevino, and Dustin Johnson. Do these players have any common denominator, other than they were all at one time or right now great players. Certainly they all don’t have a common ball flight. Azinger and Trevino were faders or the golf ball and Palmer and Thompson draw the ball. I not too sure about the ball flight pattern of the other 3 but those 4 were opposite. One thing you can say is, that Duval, Lopez, Palmer and Trevino had pretty unique swings. The only comment that I could find any of them make about their shut faced position at the top was by Palmer who said that he felt that this position helped keep him from hooking the ball too much. He must have felt that the clockwise rotation of the club head to get to square accomplished this. I do find this to be a unique way to fade the ball, but this obviously worked for Trevino, one of the all time greats. You will find the same diversity in any of the other 9 combinations that are possible, half way back, and at the top of the back swing. One of the other interesting things is that a lot of the so called classic swingers are not square at both positions. That could be the reason that even though their swing is very technically correct, they don’t play as well, as some people think they should. I am not sure this is a correct conclusion, but the more correct your swing is, maybe its more important for you to be in the square and square position.

I haven’t been able to draw many conclusions from this study of wrist movement in the golf swing, because I haven’t been able to take much to the course. I still believe that wrist action is misunderstood or totally ignored in golf instruction. It will take care of itself syndrome is definitely wrong. Do I have any ideas? Of course I do. Speaking of ideas, that’s what the future blogs are going to be about. A synopsis of the ideas I have had about the golf swing, over the last 5 and 1/2 years of this blog, that were mostly wrong, but that I have refined to get to the pathetic state that I am in today.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

After last week’s blog about the wrists and what the PGA pros do to manipulate the club head, let’s just say we have only just begun. This week I am going to discuss the half way back position. That is the terminology I am going to use for when the club head is parallel to the ground, half way back. Nobody allowed the club to get to an open position at this point in the swing, even though there were 15 players out of 61 that got the club face open at the top of the swing. To review, there were 21 players that were square half way back, 17 were slightly shut, and 23 that were shut. So what conclusions can be drawn.

Obviously, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, no player wants to fan the club open early in the swing.  My thinking is that by opening the club face early in the swing, it  would have a tendency to make the swing really on the flat side. You would get a lot of forearm rotation early in the golf swing, which apparently is not a good thing.

I think some of the shut face positions are due to a natural tendency to want the club face to continue to look at the target line for as long as possible. I see a lot of beginning golfers get in this position half way back.

There were only 12 players or about 20%, who were both square half way back and at the top of there swings. This to me would be the ideal way to swing and I am sure would be the way most instructors would try to teach. Eighty per cent have some variation on the square and square method. You have to wonder how much of this is consciously done or is this something that players work on and just can not seem to correct. Surely they know that they do this with all the video they watch of their swings.

Within this 80% group, there has to be a lot going on to make some of the moves they make from the half way back position to the top of the swing. So lets look at the three that make the biggest moves, that is going from the shut position half way back to open at the top. There were 3 players  Ray Floyd, Colin Montgomery, and Jack Nicklaus who did this and I mentioned last week that Ben Hogan went from slightly shut to wide open. All four had pretty distinct swings with Floyd’s being the most unorthodox. Again it’s pretty hard to draw any conclusions from those 4 players about why their hands and wrists worked the way they did.

In conclusion, the lesson to be learned here is don’t start opening the club face until you get at least past the half way back part of the backswing. That is even if you want to open the club face at the top but that will be discussed in later blogs as we get to the top of the swing and bring it back to the ball. Heading to San Diego to see the grand kids for Christmas, so it will probably be about 2 weeks before I continue the wrist study.

 

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The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

While there is still some golf left to be played in the Burgh, my game continues to flounder in the fall. This week, I am going to write about something I read in another blog, about how hard to hit putts. The Grateful Golfer asked the question, do you play your putts to die at the hole, or do you try to hit them 8 inches past the hole. Most of the respondents replied, that they play their putts to die at the hole. The Grateful Golfer also mentioned the Pelz philosophy of putting the ball 17 inches past the hole, which according to Pelz’s data, gives the ball the best chance of going in. I have a little different take on how you should think about the speed of the putt. I feel it depends on the length of the putt. I break my putts down into three arbitrary lengths, and have a different thought process on each putt.

Let’s start with putts over thirty feet, or approximately 10 steps. First of all, I try to make every putt. I am not an advocate of trying to get the putt within a 3 foot circle. I believe in the small target theory. Even though I am trying to make the putt, this is when I am trying to die the ball at the cup. I know my chances of making such putts are slim, so trying to die the ball at the cup gives me the best chance of not 3 putting, and a few will find the promise land in the bottom of the cup.

On putts that are between five and thirty feet, is where I adopt the Pelz philosophy, of getting the ball 17 inches past the hole. These putts have a greater chance of going in at that speed, and you want to make every effort to give them the best chance of going in.

Then there are the putts that are 5 feet and under. This is where I try to take a more aggressive attitude and get the ball to go in with a little more speed. The ball will usually hit the back of the cup. Here is a good drill to get the experience of doing this on the golf course. On the putting green start with a 3 foot putt that is fairly straight. Have 2 balls, one you are putting and the other one just about 3 inches directly across from the other ball the same distance. With the first ball make the putt with a nice speed going into the hole. You don’t want it going so fast that it hits the back of the cup and pops up in the air but you want to feel it dove in the cup or  hit the back of the cup. Then step up to the second ball and try to hit the putt with the same speed, but miss the cup on purpose to see how far this putt goes past the hole. You will probably be surprised how far this putt goes past the hole. Most likely it will be 2 to 2 and 1/2 feet. Then try to make the putt coming back. This will better prepare you  for the consequences of missing a short putt with an aggressive speed. Then do the drill with short breaking putts and at various distances under 5 feet.  With this aggressive attitude you should make a lot more of those little knee knockers.

These distances are certainly arbitrary and you can set up you own distances for each of the three philosophies. Certainly those philosophies will change on extremely down hill putts. By adopting a speed philosophy based on the length of the putts, should result in better putting stats.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

It’s been a little over  a month since I last blogged. Usually that means that my golf game is not doing all that great, but this time it just means that I have been really busy, and the game has had it’s ups and downs. I am not any closer to executing the answer. The highlight of the month was that I shot my first even par round in about 2 years, and the low light of the month has been my horrible tournament play. I will discuss my golf game in more depth in future blogs. This blog is about two new courses I played within ninety minutes of my house. Its been a long time since I have blogged a course and I forgot two things that I usually do, stimp the greens and eat a hot dog at the turn. This will mark the 93rd and 94th course that I have played within the 90 minute parameter.

The first course is Tom’s Run, in Blairsville which is about a one hour drive from my house. This is a course I have played before, but have not played it since I started doing the blog, in August of 2010. It is part of a 36 hole facility with the other course being Chestnut Ridge. The course plays about 6800 yards from the tips and I played it that day from the white tees which were about 6200 yards. The course has a lot of interesting holes and was in decent shape with the greens being very smooth and the fairways and roughs not too bad. This course would be worth the trip if it were not for two things. Their rates are above average and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th holes are weird and just plan awful. I am not going into great detail here, but they are just not very pleasing to the eye. The rest of the golf course is fine, and I have played Chestnut Ridge which they renovated when Tom’s Run was built, and they did a really nice job. This is another course which I have played but have not blogged. The place is in a little financial bind I hear, and this does not surprise me since they have really never cut their rates.

The next course is the The Club at Shadow Lakes in Aliquippa Pa. which is about a 30 minute drive.  This is a course that use to be private, but again because of financial difficulties went public. Unfortunately they never lost their country club attitude. Their rates have always been above average. I did go play it about 2 weeks ago and I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. The course has lots of water and many tree lined holes. The course plays about 6500 yards from the tips and that is the tees we played. It was in very good shape and the greens were fast enough and very smooth. The fairways were good and the rough did not have many if any bare spots. The golf course was relatively flat which is another bonus here in Western Pa. The customer service was not that great but overall this was very enjoyable course to play.  If someone would really take this course over and cut the rates and be a little more consumer savvy, this golf course could really make some loot.

I will try to get back into the swing of things, no pun intended or maybe I did, with the blog. As I wrote in the beginning of the blog the game is in a stat of flux, more like re-flux. Only time will tell if I can come up with anything to make the game better on the day we play.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

It’s a Wednesday blog as I have been really busy or it may be that it just takes me longer to do the same amount of work, I don’t know. The game is about the same and I will write about that on Sunday. But today I want to discuss two subjects the U. S. Open and the fall of Tiger Woods.

I think the U.S.G.A. may need to be investigated like F.I.F.A.  Where do you think the 2022 Open might be held, Death Valley Municipal Golf Course where soft ice cream is served after every round. Forget the fact that this was goofy golf. Forget the fact that you heard more than once a player exclaim “Oh no” and then see his ball wind up about 4 feet from the hole. Forget the fact that the greens were almost unputtable. This was not a very tough test of golf. If the Open comes back there ever again, and lets hope not, maybe they could just aerate the greens a week before the championship to really protect the course. Yes, I think kick-backs and bribes are a definite possibility here. The only thing that managed to save this Open was the finish and that  Jordan Spieth won. If the putting surfaces would have been as good as a good public course the winning score would have been easily 260 to 265 which would have crushed the Open scoring record. Even with the horrible conditions Louis Oosthuizen managed to shoot 66, 66, and 67 in the last three rounds, the best last 3 rounds in Open history. Rory may have shot 60 on Sunday, if he would have gotten the right bounce on many of his putts. Dustin Johnson would have won by 5 or 6 shots if his putts would have rolled true.  How about all the injuries that occurred from people and caddies just trying to maneuver around the place. This whole venue was a disgrace to our National Championship. Bring on Death Valley.

Tiger Woods has taken the biggest fall of any professional golfer in history. I know that David Duval was no 1 in the world and disappeared, Ian Baker Finch shot a 92 in the British Open and was gone and the list goes on and on of players who have had success, even won majors and then their games have vanished. But now, we are talking about a golfer who dominated professional golf from 1997 through 2006 like no other golfer has in history. Everybody can argue about who is the greatest of all time Nicklaus or Woods but the fact of matter remains nobody did what Tiger Woods did in those 10 seasons. He won majors by 9 12 and 15, yes 15 strokes.  He broke the cut record and  his win percentage was the best of all time. Even just 2 years back he was no 1 in the world. Now, he can only shoot better that 3 people who played in the US Open. He flat out just looks like a good low handicapper. He will go through a stretch of holes where he looks pretty good and then just seems to lose it. He mishits as many chips as he hits well.  I have always thought Tiger would go on to win 19 to 20 majors and seal the deal as the greatest of all time. If he does anything like that now, it would be the biggest comeback in sports history.  I would not be shocked if he did something like that, but sadly I think he is done. When golfers seem to get in this big of funk and this is the biggest funk of all time, they rarely recover. If this is the case, this is one die hard golfer who is really going to miss Tiger Woods.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

Well it has been an interesting two weeks, even though it has been a very non productive two weeks. Let’s get the mess over with, here are the scores: 78,81,77,76,76,76,84,87,76,79, and 82. Eleven rounds of golf in about 19 days and needless to say I am not close to executing the answer. The highlight of the period was when my partner Pete, in the 2-man scramble at South Park, holed an 80 yard wedge shot for an eagle 3 and we split a 250 dollar skin. My 87 was in the other tournament I played and I have not played well for most of the two weeks plus. Now has this been a learning experience, absolutely. Here is what I have learned.

1. I am an idiot

2. Why am I an idiot. Because not once, not twice, but three times during this time, I went into rounds with some preconceived ideas about my swing, and in each and every time these ideas failed to work and were abandoned by the third hole.

3. The second reason I am an idiot is because I am changing putters too much and if anybody knows that its not the putter but the puttee it is me. I am going to pick one putter and it is going to last for the entire year, come hell or high water.

4. I am not finding my that day swing fast enough to say the least. My method to do this is not working. So it is back to the drawing board.

Tomorrow will be June and for me this can not come fast enough. Maybe the turn of the calendar will give me a fresh start. Am I discouraged? Well, yes and no. Yes because I feel that I have wasted a period where I was able to play more golf than usual and instead of getting better, I just saw my game go downhill. No, because of my stupidity of going into three rounds with preconceived ideas of how I was going to swing and failing miserably, just reinforced my idea, that this is the answer to the game of golf. I am back to my normal routine of play with no tournaments for about 3 weeks,so hopefully I can find away to execute the answer. See you next week.

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The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

This week the blog is coming from sunny San Diego, as I have just arrived. Only able to get in one round this week which was a pretty nondescript 77. Instead of writing about how to execute the answer, which there is plenty to write about, I thought I would go off on a bit of a tangent and discuss certain aspects of playing golf. First we must differentiate  between golfers and people who play golf. Golfers are much more serious about the game. Golfers usually only golf, and although they may really enjoy watching other sports do not participate in them.  Golfers will play golf in all kinds of conditions. For me it is 38 degrees and no wind. I do not mind playing in a drizzle, and if it starts raining in the middle of a round I will finish it, unless the course becomes unplayable.

Now, that we have define golfers, lets get to two  problems common to all golfers. I have played this game since 1958. I had one year off in 1964 and did not play in 1995. I had a time from 1971 to 1986 that I played very infrequent averaging about 3 times per month, during the golfing season. Since 1987 including  this year I have played quite a bit averaging about 3 times per week  and began having a handicap in 1987. This takes in about 28 seasons. For 96% of the time my handicap has been between 3 and 5. For brief times my index has been below 3 and my lowest has been 1.6. For even briefer times my handicap has been 6 to 7. Despite improved equipment, reading more instruction books and watching more instructional videos that I thought possible, I was not able to significantly make any improvement. This is without a doubt the number one frustration that all golfers go through.

The second problem golfers have, is how they respond to a bad round under different circumstances. Golfers know there are three kinds of golf. Golf where you are either playing by yourself, or with friends and you are just having a good time or practicing. Then there is golf with your buddies when there is a little bit of money on the line, the friendly wager, in other words the competitive round. Finally there is tournament golf. When you have a bad round in the first two types of golf, you may be a little disappointed but you usually shrug it off as on of those days, try to decipher the problem and move on. But when you have a bad round in a tournament, you become the scum of the earth. We all know the words, choker, bum, and the best, ” I was playing so well going into the tournament”.  Sometimes I think this post game melt down is more of a detriment to our games that the melt down that happened during the round.

My golf season is probably over for this year but this is what the answer is all about. Having a solid improvement in 2015 and being able to play in the heat, as the name I give tournament golf. I plan to play more tournament golf in 2015 and if I have indeed found the answer the above should be accomplished. The blog will take its College Football Bowl season hiatus and I will see you in a couple of weeks. GO BUCKS!!!