Tag: golf

The blog is a day late as we had a big holiday family party with lots of food, and lots and lots of wine. By 8:30 last nite I didn’t even know I had a blog, let alone write a new post. But today after 10 aspirins and lots of water I am ready to type away a little after 2pm the next day. Before I get into the year in review, I am going to talk about the round of golf that I played last Wednesday, with one of my golf buddies, Andy. We played at Scenic Valley in less than ideal conditions, on a cloudy day, with temperatures barely getting into the low 40’s. Andy shot an impressive 1 under par 71 and I came in with an equally unimpressive 81. Look’s like I got whooped pretty good. But looking closer at the round we each hit 11 greens in regulation and I hit 9 fairways to Andy’s 8 and overall drove the ball better. These two rounds, bring up two points, that have been brought up in the past. Obviously, Andy putted way better than I did and did everything better than I did from 50 yards in. Short game, short game, short game. We all know this. This also goes to show you that even though these rounds look far apart there is not a big difference in shooting those scores. With very similar ball striking you can shoot 2 very different scores if your not putting and chipping well.

Now to the year in review. Overall this was a very good year for me with my handicap going down to 3.2 from 5.6. This is even more amazing, because most of the year I battled the chip yips, and at times was still doing some swing experiments. This swing thing that I have been doing for the past year is the main reason I peeled off a couple of strokes. I was not nearly as frustrated with my ball striking as I have been in the past and I knew how to fix things on the course. One of the things I was trying to do, was to apply what I was doing with the full swing to chipping and putting. Even though I had some success doing this, I now know that this was a mistake. For shots of about 50 yards and beyond my swing technique worked just fine, but chipping and putting are unique endeavors.  So the goals for 2013 is to refine the swing technique and improve the putting and chipping. The blog will be put to sleep for the remaining year as there is just too much college football for this junky to take time to write the blog. Beginning next year I will begin to discuss this swing technique that has rejuvenated my game. The first blog, is what I call a set up blog, and then we will really get into it. Have a great holiday and see you in 2013.

Well, here we are December 2 and we were able to get in 18 holes of golf today. Went to Riverview today and broke the streak barely with a 79. In the beginning the putter was kicking ass again as I three putted the first 3 out of four greens. Then I settled down and even though I had only 2 one putts, did not three putt again and parred 11 out of the last 14 holes. It was a very good ball striking day as the weather did turn a little nasty with some wind and rain but for this time of year in the Burgh it was a very good golf day.  Now on to another subject that is really bothering me. In some other blogs and in general, the book Five Lessons The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, by Ben Hogan, is regarded as one of the best instructional ever written. Some great pros Nick Price and Larry Nelson, to name a few, have said that this is the book that they read when they first started to learn the game. I maintain that this is one of the worst books written on golf instruction. The main problem is with the title. If it had been titled, Golf My Way by Ben Hogan, then there would be no complaint. This is not to disparage the golfer Hogan in any way. There is no question he is one of the top 3 or 4 players to have ever played the game and arguably the best. He just wrote a bad book. Remember this is a book that is just about how to hit a golf ball. There is nothing in it related to the short game, putting, or playing the game. That is not a criticism of the book but just to make clear that this is a book strictly about the golf swing. So I am heading out to San Diego next week to do a little holiday celebrating with the grandkids. This will give me a little time to go through the book in more depth so I can really rip into it next week. As I said in an earlier blog if you are a duck hooker then this is the book for you.  However this book has about as much to do with the  “Modern Fundamentals of Golf” as horseshoes.