Tag: golf

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Golf: The Evolving Left Heel

When you start looking at golf swings over history, the use of the left heel is one of the biggest differences. It is hard to say exactly when the golf swings of the pros changed, so these years may not be exact, but we need to divide the left heel into three different generations of golfers: the pros from 1900 to 1935, the pros from 1935 to 1990, and finally, the pros from 1990 to the present. There will be some exceptions during these times, although for the present swing of the pros, I see no exceptions, which does not mean that there may be a few. From 1935 to 1990, the use of the left heel gradually and subtly changed over those years. Let’s go through the years and see what the left heel did.

From 1900 to 1935, the great players were Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Harry Vardon, James Baird, J. H. Taylor, Tommy Armour, Willie Anderson, Ted Ray, and Jim Barnes. They all lifted their left heel quite high during the backswing. There is no question they did this lifting of the left heel consciously. The left heel, in most cases, started to come off the ground just as the swing began. Many, but not all, even lifted the heel slightly on less-than-full shots. When it came to full iron shots, the left heel would come off the ground. It would not come off the ground quite as high as the driver, but there was no doubt the left heel came up for all shots. On the driver swings, the heel came way off the ground, where just the top of the shoe was touching the ground. Of all the great players of that era, Gene Sarazen’s heel came up the least on the driver swing. In fact, he came the closest to swinging the way the pros swung during the ’40s all the way through to the ’90s.

As we got into the 50s and pretty much into the 70s and the 80s, things began to change. The left heel continued to rise on the driver swings and most of the iron shots. However, for the short irons, the heel would remain on the ground for some players. Certainly, for short game shots, nobody would lift their heel. The great players during this time were Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, and Lee Trevino. This was the first boom period for golf, thanks to Arnold Palmer. While practically all the players raised their left heel distinctly for all long shots, it was more of a reaction to the turning of their bodies, especially their hips. They all felt that the left heel was being pulled off the ground by a full backswing turn. Nicklaus’s heel came way off the ground for his driver swing. The difference between this swing and the swing of the early 1900s was that at the beginning of the swing, the left heel did stay on the ground. Because the left heel came off the ground so late in the backswing, it was a much quicker up and down. It may have been more of a timing mechanism. It certainly was for Jack Nicklaus. He mentioned in his instructional books that he felt the first move to begin the downswing was to plant the left heel back on the ground. I looked at a lot of golf swings from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and all the players followed this particular rule. They all felt that the left heel coming off the ground was one of the last things that happened in the backswing. There was no question that practically all the good players raised that left heel.

Beginning in the late 80s and into the 90s, a new thought process was starting to take place when it came to the left heel. Good players started to have more of a rolling process when it came to the left foot and the backswing. These players included Greg Norman, Ernie Els, and Nick Faldo. From the rolling of the left foot came keeping the left foot on the ground through the entire backswing. This was to restrict the hip turn to create a stretch at the top of the backswing to create more power. In today’s game, we have practically all the pros with Tiger Woods topping that list. I did not get too technical here because even rolling the left foot inward does keep about 90% of the left heel on the ground. There is no question this is the modern swing. Keep that left foot on the ground throughout the swing. So how should this evolving left heel affect our game?

We all should consider at least trying to lift the left heel. There are two big benefits to lifting the left heel on the backswing. First and foremost, it guarantees that you will get your weight off the left foot during the backswing. The second benefit, which Jack Nicklaus mentions in his books, is that it will keep the hips level during the swing. As your left knee turns toward the ball, if you do not lift your left heel, you will feel your left hip move closer to the ground. What method should we use when we lift the left heel? Should we feel that the left heel is being dragged off the ground, or should we start lifting the heel as soon as the swing starts? I think you can experiment with either method, but I would start out with the left heel lifting right away, simply to get used to the move. One thing lifting the left heel will do is take the strain off the back and hips. I would practice by always incorporating the left heel lifting right at the beginning of the swing. For the real deal, if your results are better by lifting the heel late in the backswing, then go ahead and make that your backswing. Lifting the left heel has long been a forgotten part of golf. For us weekend warriors, I think it should be rediscovered.

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Golf: Practice Swings

To practice swing or not to practice swing, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer doing something for no reason or take the risk of having irreparable damage done to your golf game for failing to do so. Back when Shakespeare wrote “to be or not to be,” nobody in golf was taking practice swings. It was not until the turn of the 20th century that golfers and golf instructors thought there would be a benefit from rehearsing your golf swing before every shot. When you think about it, no other sport really does a practice swing. You never see a pitcher turn his back to the plate and go through the complete wind-up without throwing the ball. You do not see a tennis player go through the motions of hitting a serve and then hit the serve. You do not see a bowler take a full 4 or 5-step approach without the ball. Practice swings have been part of golf for over a hundred years. There are many possible benefits to making practice swings. Despite these benefits, we do not seem to be able to hit the ball with the same motion as our practice swings. There are many videos on YouTube to teach you how to hit the ball with your practice swing. These may be some of the worst instructional videos in the history of golf. First, let’s take a look at the general consensus when it comes to the benefit of practice swings. There are different feelings about practice swings for each part of the game. The full swing, the short game, and putting all have different ways you should be thinking of practice swings.

For all full shots, the internet says the practice swing can benefit these parts of the game. The practice swing can serve as a muscle memory rehearsal. You can create the swing that you want for a particular shot. You can use the practice swing to ingrain a new swing thought. It can help you with your tempo and rhythm. It can give you a moment to increase your mental focus. After all of that, it is a wonder that anybody could execute a golf shot before 1900. Short game practice swings are more shot oriented. You want to engage with the turf on your practice swings with chips and pitches. You want to gauge how far you want to hit the ball and the trajectory you want to use. You want to establish your swing length for the shot. Putting is about the same as the short game for practice swings, but you want to be even more precise with your distance control and rhythm of the stroke. With putting, you may want to take your practice swings from behind the ball. There is not a lot of opinion that is against the practice swing. The biggest negative is if you are doing it wrong, then it is more of a problem than a help to your game. It may ingrain bad habits, plus it might slow down your game if you take too many. It may cause some overthinking of the shot. Then there is the problem of not being able to hit the ball with the same technique as you used on the practice swing. This is the same problem as not being able to take your game from the range to the golf course, which I have written about before. It simply boils down to the fact that you cannot fool your brain. The brain knows you are taking a practice swing just like it knows you are now going to hit the ball. I will get into that in a future blog. For now, do not worry about it because there is no solution for either problem. Needless to say, I disagree with just about everything that is written about the practice swing on the full swing and about half of what is written about it in the short game and putting. So let’s cut to the chase.

The full swing practice swing should be nothing more than a loosening device to help you swing. It is especially true for me because it is rare that I ever hit balls before a round. Usually, I will start out with big practice swings to begin with and then, as I warm-up, I will take slower or shorter practice swings. Maybe the practice swing can help with some rhythm issues, but it still boils down to executing the swing. I watch a lot of old film and videos of the pros during tournament play, and all of their practice swings were just a relaxed version of their swings. Few of them ever took a full hard swing with their practice swings. Basically, you should never try to create a full swing shot with your practice swing. You may create part of it, like a high follow-through for a high shot. When it comes to the short game, I think one thing that is overlooked when the pros are preparing for their shot is the way they take a practice swing. It is more of a back-and-forth motion, not taking any time to reset. It is like they are trying to get a feel from moving backward and forward, then forward to backward without ever stopping. I think in putting, the way you take your practice swing is dictated by how you are putting. If you are having a good day at distance control, then the practice stroke should be more of a loosening device. If you are having trouble with green speed, then the practice strokes need to be done more precisely to mimic the way you are going to hit the putt. We all know the one thing that practice swings do is to slow play down. You see it all the time the individual who takes 2 or more practice swings for every shot. The bad thing, is that individual is probably not going to break a 100. So just hit the damn ball.

So are practice swings a necessary and unique element of golf? Most likely yes. I have played a few rounds without ever taking a practice swing. Sometimes I have done this in the middle of the round. Like the practice swing itself, there is no rhyme or reason why I will suddenly stop taking practice swings. Sometimes I think it is just to show that the game can be played without the practice swing. One of the main reasons you should try not to make your practice swing exactly like your regular swing is how many times do you do something exactly the same way. One of the simplest ways to show this is to simply write your name. Then try to write it exactly the same way. You will never be able to do it. Same thing with your golf swing. Let’s say that you feel you make the perfect practice swing for the shot you are trying to play. In some respect, you have just wasted that swing. When you try and do it for real and the results are poor, it just increases your frustration. Even on the short game, you do not want to feel that your practice swings are that precise. Always think in general terms and just get a good feel for the shot. The practice swing in golf, even though it is unique when compared to other sports, is here to stay. Don’t overdo it and don’t overthink it. Take it for what it is: a way to loosen up and get ready for the full shots, a way to get a general feel for short shots. Don’t be lackluster with it, especially for the short shots. Just do not get into the practice swing too much. It’s only when you hit the ball that it really counts.

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Golf: My 2025 Season So Far

My 2025 golf season is winding down. It has been a typical year, with lots of ups and downs. I would say there have been more ups than downs. Nothing new on how to play the game, but there are a few changes. There was not as much traveling for golf this year. Many of the guys I play with had tough years with injuries and, in some cases, illnesses. Everybody made it through the year, but some better than others, to say the least. The best way to go through this year is to take a page from the classic western The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. I would say there was enough to go around for all three.

There was plenty of good. I have already broken my record for rounds played in a year. I have played 158 rounds, which eclipses my old record by 6 rounds. Right now, we have a weather break, but things are looking up to play Thursday through Sunday this week. With any luck, this year I may make the 170 mark. I have shot my age, 75 or better, 48 times so far this year. Last year I did it only 22 times. Of course, I had to shoot 74 or better last year. I did shoot a 73 from the white tees this year. Most of my rounds were played from the gold tees. My best round of the year was a 2 under 70, the same as last year. I started the year with a 5.0 index and currently, it is 4.9. I did have a much more consistent year. The highest I went was 6.3, and the lowest was 4.5. I also won my age group in the South Park Seniors and tied for the 4th best score of the day with a 75. My driving was still the stalwart of my game. My putting was up and down, so I will still put it in the good. I have actually been putting very well lately after having a downturn with putting during October. My other big improvement this year has been my sand play. I am not great, but I am not costing myself 2 or 3 shots when I am in a bunker. The weather had its ups and downs also. It was very windy and wet in March, April, May, and the early part of June. Then we went through a blistering hot spell that left a lot of courses in terrible shape. The rain we did get in this time frame was more in the form of a deluge. Beginning about the 2nd week of August, we went through some of the best weather I have ever experienced in Western Pennsylvania. Temperatures ranged from 66 to 84. It never got too hot or too cold all the way through the 3rd week of October. We could have used more rain, but we did get just enough to help some of the courses recover. Right now, we have hit a bit of a cold spell, but milder temps are on the horizon.

Next the bad, and there was plenty of that. My iron game continues to give me problems. It was the biggest reason my handicap did not go down. My iron play was especially bad from the 9-iron on up. I would have some good days with the irons. I have pretty much given up on figuring it out. My irons now consist of just the 6-iron through the lob wedge. Even though my handicap did not change much, I did have some really bad rounds this year. It wasn’t quite as bad as last year, but I had 14 rounds between 84 and 90. All of these rounds were brought on by bad iron play and a terrible short game. My problems with my irons did not have just one issue. Sometimes I would hit them fat, other times thin, and short irons just skulled low line drives. Those three shots could occur in just one round. There were some days that I had no finesse with them at all. I would have days where I did everything well with them: hit cuts, draws, high, and low shots at will. These were the days I shot my best rounds, as long as the putter behaved.

Now for the ugly and we all know where this is going. THE CHIP YIPS. Plus I added the shank chip, which I believe is nothing than a form of the chip yips. Even my good round in the South Park Seniors had a chip shank on the 17th hole. I admit I was choking down the stretch as I was just 2 over par after 16 holes. I somehow managed to hit 2 very good shots on the Par 5 and was almost green high on the left. The pin was on the front right but the green is narrow at the front. I tried to get too fancy and shanked it right out to the middle of the fairway. From there I putted from about 20 yards short of the green to avoid another shank. I putted it about 8 feet past and missed for a bogey 6. I played 18 better than I thought I would and had a 10-footer for bird but made a horrible putt but parred the hole to stagger in with my 75. The putting yips for now seem to be under control. I will be writing about that later this week. I have tried various things when it comes to the chip yips and just go back and forth with it. Some things seem to work and then everything just goes haywire. Fortunately, at times they just seem to go away. They are there more than they are not. I may discuss them further in another blog, but I don’t know. If I have a big breakthrough, I will be writing about that.

There is still some golf to be played this year, and where there is golf, there is hope. I will do the end of season right near Christmas when the year will be ending. I will be blogging some more over the next two days. The next one will be about my favorite subject: putting. Not too sure what the second one will be; most likely something about the mental game.

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Golf: Don’t Become A Slave To Your Pre Shot Routine

All golf instruction recommends having a pre-shot routine. The pre-shot routine allows you to treat each shot the same way. The pre-shot routine lets you execute better when the shots become more important as the round progresses. Your long game, short game, and putting pre-shot routines will each be a little different. I do agree that it is very important to have a pre-shot routine. I feel, however, that many golfers will never vary their pre-shot routine no matter what the situation. They are also reluctant to change their pre-shot routine as a way to improve their game. They are very rigid when it comes to the pre-shot routine. In other words, they become a slave to the pre-shot routine. What winds up happening is that something that is supposed to help their game winds up making their game worse. I will use my own pre-shot routines for each phase of the game as examples.

For the long game, I have two basic pre-shot routines depending on how I am swinging the club. If my swing is good, I take a small practice swing. It is about 1/5 the length of a normal backswing. Sometimes early in the round, I feel a little stiff. Or I think my swing is off. In such cases, I will take a full practice swing. For both, I start out by standing behind the ball to help line up the shot. Then I take my address position at the ball. I take one look at the target. Then I will make my swing. Sometimes, I run into trouble when I take that first look at the target. I will feel I am aimed a little right. Or my stance is not quite right. If I make the final adjustment, I will usually hit a good shot. If I don’t, then the shot is usually not so good. This does not happen often, but sometimes I have to make two adjustments. In either example, this is a departure from my usual routine. When I do it, the shots are better.

With the short game my routine changes. This is the routine I use when things are going well. I will discuss later what I do when things are going very badly like with the chip yips. I stand behind the ball trying to imagine the shot I want to hit. On all short game shots, I use my practice swings to try to get a feel for the shot. I do not have a set number, but I take anywhere from 3 to 6 depending on the shot. While I am doing that, I am also trying to picture the shot. Once I am confident that I have a good feel for the shot, I take my address position. I look at my spot I want to hit 1 or 2 times. Then, I execute the shot. I do this for any shot that is going to need less than a full swing. Off topic for a moment. The high shot chip shot that helped for a while with the chip yips ran its course. I am back to normal chipping of hitting low running shots. Sigh.

My putting pre-shot routine is similar to my short game routine. I line up the putt from behind the ball. I rarely look at a putt from behind the hole. On extremely long putts, I will walk up to the hole. This helps me get a lay of the land close to the hole. I take one practice swing looking at the hole. The practice swing will be one that I would use to make the putt. Once I settle in for the putt, I focus on the line. I take only one look at it. I want to make certain the putt goes on this line. I look down at the ball and instantly stroke the putt. Sounds nice and simple because it is. As in the short game, this is what I do when things are going well. What if they are not?

Players are always looking at their swings and techniques in all facets of the game to improve their swings. They rarely look at something like the pre-shot routine to help improve their score. I have changed my routine right in the middle of a round. This change has helped turn around many a round that seemed headed down the drain. In the long game, I have completed my entire pre-shot routine from behind the ball. I do this instead of performing it from the side. I have had rounds where I do not take a practice swing. In the short game, I will take just one practice swing. This swing has nothing to do with the shot I am planning. I will remove the practice swing. I will take many more looks at the line before I hit the pitch or chip. In putting, I will take my practice swing while looking at the ball rather than the hole. I will try to make the stroke I want on the practice swing. All of these changes have helped me do better on the golf course. I achieved this without changing anything about my swing or technique. I believe that everyone should have a pre-shot routine for every phase of the game. Don’t be afraid to change it when things are not going well. You will be surprised by the results. It is not good to be a slave.

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Golf: Chipping, Going Against The Grain.

I usually have more experience with a method before I write about it, but we are having a more normal winter here in Western Pennsylvania and playing golf is definitely on the backburner. At the end of February last year, I had played 10 rounds of golf. In 2023 I played 8 rounds. So far this year I have played 9 holes, and it does not look like I will be playing the rest of this month. I started using this method toward the end of last year, so I think I have been doing this for about 5 rounds. I have battled the chip yips for about 5 years with having good spells and bad spells but mostly bad spells. This change in chipping is not so much a change in technique but a change in chipping philosophy which goes against the grain of most chipping instruction. The basic philosophy of chipping has always been minimum air time and maximum ground time. All the great short game players have advocated this method.

One of the debates in chipping has been whether to use different clubs depending on the shot you are trying to hit or use just one club like a lob or sand wedge, manipulating the head open or closed and changing ball position, depending on the type of shot you are trying to hit. I use strictly my sand wedge now for all chip shots. However, I do not manipulate the club, because I hit every shot the same, no matter what the situation. The one exception is if I have to hit a really high shot, I will open the face to increase the loft of the club. I would have to do this eventually if I used a lob wedge instead. With the 56-degree sand wedge I hit every chip shot basically the same which is high. If I have a chip shot that is just off the green 3 or 4 yards and I have a lot of green to work with I do not hit the low chip that just lands on the green and runs up to hole. Using the sand wedge’s normal loft, I will hit a high shot short of the pin and let it roll from this point. I see many advantages of using the high method even when it is not necessary. You are hitting one type of shot for every chip. The technique is the same for every shot. The difference is how hard are you going to hit the ball to fly to a spot short of the hole. The other advantage on longer chips, where the ball is off the green by 5 to 10 yards and you have more than 50 feet of green to work with is you do not have to be reading the green for all that roll. I can’t tell you how many times that I have hit a long chip, and the ball has gone in a different direction than I thought it would because I read the green wrong. By hitting a high chip, you only have to know what the ball is going to do about 15 to 20 feet short of the hole depending on the conditions of the green. This has simplified my process greatly. In the world of riding cart golf, I always take the same club out of my bag for every shot around the green. By sticking to the same technique, at least so far, I have not had near the problems with the yips, and if I do yip, the shot still turns out better than my old yip chips. This method particular helps in longer grass around the green where a less lofted club may have a tendency to get caught up in the rough.

I have not used this method for that many rounds and eventually it may go by the wayside by the 9th or 10th round this year. Even though this is a small sample size I feel it has helped me shoot better scores. If your short game is solid then naturally I would continue what you are doing. If you are having problems even if it is not the chip yips but just not getting it up a down that often when just off the green, then I would give the high shot method a try. As we finally get into the golf season I will keep you posted on how I am doing around the greens.

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Golf: Playing The Game, Part 3

In this blog I am going to discuss the most important part of playing the game, putting. Putting can save your round or destroy your round. This will not be a how to putt article. There has been more written about putting than any other aspect of the game. I am going to look at 2 mental aspects of putting. One that I am very good at and the other that I am very bad.

The first one is you should expect to make every putt you attempt, no matter how difficult or long the putt is. If you don’t make the putt you should feel the disappointment. You don’t need to go ballistic over it but you need to really feel disappointed when it does not go in. This legitimizes your expectations. I do not advocate trying to get the ball in the 3 foot circle on long putts. In my view the more you are trying to make the putt the closer you are going to get the ball to the hole. I make my fair share of putts over 20 feet and that is because I expect to make it every time I’m over the ball.

Now we come to the dreaded short putt. Let’s define short as any putt that is 18 inches to about 6 to 7 feet from the hole. There are two things that make short putts unique. We not only expect to make the putt but we add that dreaded word should to the process. Ah, that word should. Like we should exercise more, eat better, sleep longer and make all putts between 2 and 6 feet. The 2nd unique thing about short putts is you have choices. You can try and bang the ball in the back of the cup, die the ball over the lip, or just try to find a happy medium. Even though longer putts can go in using all 3 speeds, no one is standing over a 20 foot putt thinking I am going to bang this in the back of the cup. Most of the time on long putts you are thinking of dying the ball in the cup or just going a short way by the hole. For whatever reason we rarely think of dying the ball in the hole on short putts. There was only one tour player who advocated dying the ball on short putts and that was Cory Pavin. Getting back to the dreaded word should. Why is it so bad? Because as soon as you start thinking should, it creates tension in the stroke, which leads to disastrous results. When you combine should with the perceived importance of the putt your chances of making the putt drops to well under 50%, no matter how short the putt is. As I wrote in the beginning of the blog, I am terrible at all of this and miss more than my share of short putts. I do not have any permanent solution. For me, if I make short putts early in the round then I will usually go on to have a good day. On the other side of the coin, if I miss them early then I have a hard time turning it around. All that I see on TV, I’m not the only one having this problem.

There will be one more post on playing the game and that will be on the short game. This post may be awhile because I am working on some things and with winter I may not be playing all that much to evaluate them. If I ever come up with a short putt solution I will pass that along also. All I can say until then, is get out and play, it is the only true measure of how good your golf game is.

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Golf: Revisiting Grip Pressure, Overswinging, and Starting The Downswing.

I wrote these three articles about 2 to 3 years ago and they remain my most popular blogs, especially the one on grip pressure. The overswinging blog was titled You Cannot Overswing and the blog on starting the downswing was Maybe Sam Snead Was Right After All. Snead had a unique thought on how to start the downswing which was mostly criticized by other golf instructors. Over these last 3 years I haven’t really changed my mind, but I thought it might be time to clarify a few points in each area and even strengthen some points because there are still instructors out there that teach a different philosophy that in my view hurts the average golfer more than helps. All three subjects are what it takes to hit a golf ball consistently. A most important aspect of the address, the grip, how to make a backswing, and the first move in making the downswing. If you can do these things correctly then your chances of making solid contact with the ball increase dramatically. Unfortunately, golf instruction has some strange ideas on these subjects, especially the first two, which makes learning the game very difficult. They are not as far off on starting the downswing mainly because there are as many ways to start the downswing as there are body parts. What makes this difficult at times is that the methods used will work, it just boils down to finding what might work for you. This is different when it comes to the grip and backswing, because what most golf instruction teaches is wrong. So, let’s dive in.

There are way too many endorsers of the light grip. I saw a recent video aimed at senior golfers that said it is very important to start with a light grip. They say that your grip will tighten up automatically when you start to swing. What happen to constant grip pressure during the swing. Most of the older instruction books write about having a firm grip. The pressure points are the middle two fingers of the right hand and the last 3 fingers of the left hand. All of this light grip stuff started because some beginners take a death grip on the club. To put a number on it, let’s say that 1 is the lightest you can hold the club and 10 is the tightest you can squeeze the club. In order to grip the club with the correct firmness I would put a number around 7 to 8 depending on the shot. 8 for the driver and longer clubs and for hitting out of the rough no matter what the club. If you don’t want the club closing over out of the rough, you had better firm up those last 3 fingers of the left hand. For all short shots and short irons I would say it should be closer to a 7. It is perfectly fine to work your fingers and have some hand movement before the shot. Just before you start the swing you want to feel that the hands are firming up and ready to control the clubhead. Your hands are never going to be able to react to the movement of the swing, especially at the point of contact with club accelerating at full speed. You do not need to choke the life out of the club, no pun intended, but you do need to take full command of the club and the clubhead. There is no way you are doing this with a light grip. If you played these sports think of how you held a baseball bat or a tennis racket. Be the firm handshake, not the dead fish.

I still believe that you cannot overswing. However, you do have to do two things at the end of your backswing. Your weight should be solidly on the right foot, and you should feel that you are in balance. One of the biggest swing faults I see is that people take too short of a backswing. This short backswing is caused by anxiety in trying to hit the ball, and the odd feeling of turning away from your target. It does not help that most golf instruction talks about restricting the hip turn. This all started with what is known as the X factor. The X factor being the more you can turn your shoulders without turning your hips the farther you will hit the ball. The basic swing is a 45 degree hip turn and a 90-degree shoulder turn. This is a difference of 45 degrees. The goal of the X factor swing is to increase this 10 to 20 degrees. If you do this, you will hit the ball farther. Is this correct. Absolutely. Will you be able to play golf well into your 70’s with this method. Probably not. A big hip turn is essential if you are going to minimize the wear and tear on the body. I feel the hips should turn at least 45 degrees and you should try to turn them anywhere from 60 to 70 degrees. The great Bobby Jones had a huge hip turn. None other than Jack Nicklaus had a big hip turn. He even raised his heel off the ground to ensure that his hips were turning quite a bit. Once you start making a big hip turn you will really feel your swing loosening up and become more fluid. The only danger of making a big hip turn is that as you turn toward the 70 degree mark, there may be a tendency to throw the body toward the left side or on the left foot. Make sure you maintain the weight on the right foot at the top of the backswing, and you will be hitting the ball in an effortless way. You will not be stretching the left side of the body to its limits, causing damage to tendons and muscles. Try a big hip turn backswing and let the body heal from restricting those hips.

All right, we are at the top of the swing. Now it is time to start down and make contact with the ball. There are many correct ways to start the downswing. None of them are wrong. As a player you need to find the one that works for you. However, you don’t need to be a slave to any of them. If one of them does not seem to be working, then go to another one. Before we get to all the ways to start down, let’s look at what Sam Snead said. He said that the best way to start down was to think about pulling a rope down that was attached to a church bell. Snead was really panned for that idea because as golf instruction developed and video came into use, the lower body became king as the way to start down. The idea was to keep the hands out of the picture until the last minute when they would release for a powerful smash right at the ball, but not any sooner. What Snead did not emphasize when he wrote about this, is that the hands need to start straight down form the top. All of a sudden you see this being advocated under the heading of the gravity swing. When you get to the top drop the hands straight down. The difference is, Snead used the word pull, and now people are talking about letting the hands just drop. To me this indicates a more passive move to start the downswing, where Snead’s words of pulling the hands down is more aggressive. It is a matter of semantics but there is no question this is what Snead was telling people to do 65 years ago. There are other effective ways to start the downswing. I am going to briefly mention a number of them without any explanation. If you want to read more about them, you can look them up. They all can work. Straightening your left leg. Kicking your right knee toward the ball. Raising your left shoulder. It helps if you are thinking of lowering your left shoulder during the back swing. Bump your hips to the left before turning toward the target. Just shift you weight to the left foot before starting down. Falling into the lead foot. Unscrewing your backswing with the legs and then firing the shoulder away from the body. Moving the core forward then increasing the arm speed. Lots to choose from there and none of them are bad. However, none of them are going to give Snead’s method of starting the downswing a thumbs up. Believe me it is another effective and yet very simple way to start the downswing. It is a method you should definitely try.

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Golf: The Putting Grips Of The Pros

Putting is by far the most individual aspect of the game of golf. There is more written about putting than any other aspect of the game. Despite the fact there are people that keep insisting that greens in regulation is the most important stat in the game, because they want ball striking to be more important, it really is putting. If Colin Morikawa had putted well in the fourth round of the first two majors he would have won both of them. He definitely struck the ball better than the law firm of Schauffele and Scheffler. How do the people that make a living at this game attach themselves to the putter. I divided them into four groups. The normal grip with the right hand below the left and any variation. The self explanatory left hand low grip. The yip fixing claw grip. Finally the long putter, including the one that is braced against the arm. This was far from what I would call a scientific study. I watched golf on Thursday and Friday for about 3 weeks. I included women pros, although most were men. The total number came to 108. What were the results and did I feel I learned anything.

There were 58 pros who used what I would call the conventional putting grip, basic reverse overlap. Thirty two used the left hand low. Nine used the claw grip and 9 used a unique putter. I was surprised by two things. The conventional putting grip is still the preferred method of gripping the putter by a wide margin. I was surprised at how few players use the claw. The most unique grip was by tour player Joe Highsmith. He is left handed and keeps his right hand low and claws, calling it the reverse claw. Even in the short time that I did the survey, there were some players that changed their grip method. What did I learn from this little survey? Not a whole hell of a lot, quite frankly other than something that I already knew. That putting is all in your head. The other thing, which I have advocated in the past, is do not become enslaved to one method of putting. Do it until it stops working but then move on to another method. I have what I feel are about 4 or 5 methods that I use to putt and will change them based on results. None of them involve making a major grip change. Putting is nothing more than confidence and guts.

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Sports: Random Thoughts

Have not done on of these types of blogs for a while. I just kind of free base thoughts on various topics of the sports world. This will probably take place over a few days as I think of things.

Pro football to me had a very strange end to its season. The last 3 games the wrong team won each game. The Ravens should have beaten the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. The Lions should have won the NFC Championship game. The 49ers outplayed the Chiefs in the Super Bowl but managed to lose. A very unusual ending to the season to have 3 such games in a row. It makes you wonder is one game really the way to decide a champion. Having said that I don’t know if football has any other options.

I have not watched one shot on the LIV tour. When the tour started the PGA tour players had nothing good to say about the tour and the players that defected. No question thanks to the LIV tour, the players of the PGA tour are going to make a lot more money than they would have in 2024 and beyond. All of a sudden, the LIV tour and their players are not such bad guys after all, with the PGA tour players taking back and softening a lot of the things they said in 2023. This is the perfect example of money talks and bullshit walks, and in this case walking back.

The Spring Training games have started, and it is shocking to me that neither Blake Snell nor Cody Bellinger have not been signed by any team. Snell even more so because this guy is a two-time Cy Young winner. Even though both are represented by Scott Boras it is a big surprise that neither has gotten a deal yet. In my view these are a couple of imperfect free agents and maybe teams are just gun shy at putting out the super bucks for two players that have some obvious flaws. Since starting this, Bellinger resigned with the Cubs but certainly not for the long-term deal that many thought he would get. Maybe next year Cody.

March Madness is coming soon, and I will have to say my interest in the tournament has waned over the years. There are so many teams, and it just seems like the regular college basketball season is just a waste of time. I don’t know how important seeding is anyway and that is about all the regular season does. I think the tournament needs a tweak in the format. The top 8 teams selected by the committee would automatically be in the sweet 16. Then the next 64 teams are in the tournament making a total of 72 teams. These teams will battle for the other 8 spots in the sweet 16. This will put new emphasis on the regular season. If you have that good of a season you deserve to be in the final 16 of the tournament. It should make for a much better tournament.

Even though we are not in their season, college football has to cut down the bowl games. They will have a 12-team playoff system next season which is great. Let’s stick with that nice round number of 12 and have 12 more bowl games. There will be 11 playoff games and 12 bowl games for a total of 23 post season games involving 46 college football teams and that is more than enough.

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Favorite People

Daily writing prompt
Who are your favorite people to be around?
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My favorite people to be around is my daughter and her family, including her extended family. When I go out to California to visit them, I could not have a better time. There is the old saying you can choose your friends but not your relatives. If I could have chosen them, I would have in a heartbeat. Everything is upbeat and we just have a good time. I don’t know how else to put it. My next choice is to be around people on the golf course. People I would do little else with I enjoy playing golf. Now there are exceptions both ways. There is one person I knew, who off the golf course was about as personable as anyone could be. He told great stories, seemed to be upbeat about anything and was just a great guy to just hang out with. Once he got on the golf course it was a different story. He would become upset at the least little thing. He could shoot a score of close to par or right at par, and you would have thought he shot 90, the way he behaved. Needless to say, as much I liked this guy, we no longer play golf with him. I enjoy being around anyone who likes to have a lively discussion about sports, especially golf, football, and baseball. I enjoy being around people at the neighborhood bar, even though I might not interact with them. I just like to be around people who seem like they are having a good time eating and drinking. I like to be in that noisy chaotic environment every once in a while. I love to go to concerts to feel the electricity and excitement before the main act comes out. I can feed off all of that, to feel an energy lift through my entire body. I enjoy being around people that are all rooting for the same sports team. I know that it can’t happen all of time, due to unfortunate circumstances, but any situation involving people that can lift my mood, I love to experience. The nice thing is that happens every time I visit my family.