Tag: mental game

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

A little better news to report this week concerning the golf game. After many weeks of el stinko golf I played the last 12 holes of the week even par. It was solid golf with 8 pars 2 birdies and 2 bogies.  Have I found something? Who knows. It may be that I brought all the things I have been talking about over the last 5 years together to shoot a decent stretch of holes. Or this may be just one of those goofy stretch of holes that anybody mired in a slump has once in awhile. This week I would like to discuss a couple aspects of golf that I just find interesting and wonder how if any it affects our own golf games.

The highest level of golf, the PGA tour, always makes golfers at all levels wonder how the pros are able to shoot such great numbers. Now what I am about to write about, does not mean that I think that this is  the only reason that the pros shoot such good numbers but I wonder what would happen if they were made to do just one thing. HIT THE DAMN SHOT. For every shot, there is a big discussion between the player and the caddy. There are numerous practice swings and even more thought and swings, for shots around the greens. Then when they get on the green, they read putts from behind, the side and in front of the ball. I would like to see a tournament that had a shot clock. It would be 45 seconds for every full shots and long pitches. Thirty seconds for shots around the green and putts. The clock would start as soon as the bag came off the caddy’s shoulder for longer shots and as soon as the ball was placed in front of the mark for putts.  Despite all the call for speedy play in golf, do you think if the low handicapper took this much time to figure out each shot and putt would his game improve. By the same token, if the pros were made to speed up via a shot clock would their scores go up. I  really don’t have any opinion on the answer, but I would love to see that PGA event with the shot clock to see what would happen.

Then there is the swing thought. The swing thought has been around for 100 years. Bobby Jones writes about in his books on Golf written in the 1930’s. My point is, golfers have made no progress on the swing thought in 85 years. It is something that is just excepted in golf. Your find some kind of swing thought. It may range from starting back low and slow, slow the transition, shift the weight to left side, to make a full back swing. There are too many to mention, including address position adjustments. The one thing that all these swing thoughts have in common is that eventually they do not work. We as golfers, just accept this, as that’s just the way golf is. Part of my trying to execute the answer mantra, is to abandon that swing thought before it abandons you. But why does this happen? Is it because this swing thought even though it helps us temporarily, causes another fault in the golf swing. There are many golf mental guru’s who advocate no swing thought. Maybe they are right but I don’t know. Maybe instead of having a swing thought we should have a swing feel. Maybe the way a swing feels will stay with us and won’t abandon us. I don’t know, we’ll see.

It might be a little bit of time of we’ll seeing, because the grand kids are in town and golf will be on the back burner, but I might be able to squeeze in a couple of rounds. We’ll see.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

It’s been two weeks since the last blog and not to much positive has happened. The golf has been mediocre at best, with score ranging from mid 70’s to the mid 80’s with no end in sight. It appears executing the answer is going to be just as difficult as finding the answer. I am going to discuss one interesting thing that I am doing with some positive results.

In some areas of the country, this is not a concern, but in Western Pennsylvania playing from uneven lies is an every day problem. The basic lies are uphill, downhill, ball below your feet and ball above the feet. The general advice has been to play the slope. If the ball is above your feet you are suppose to aim to the right of the target and allow the ball to draw, right to left. If the ball is below your feet then you are to aim to the left and allow the ball to go from left to right. A  lie that is downhill will go from left to right and an uphill lie will have a tendency to be pulled, so you aim a little right.  Now there are all kinds of address position adjustments that you make for each lie and any instruction book will go through them and many of you already know this. What I have been doing the last two months with some pretty good results is trying to fight the slope. If the ball is below my feet I will aim a little right of the target and try to hit a draw. With the ball above my feet I will aim a little left of the target and hit a fade. The result is a shot that travels pretty straight or does draw or fade a little bit. This move has been particularly effective when the ball is below my feet. The shot flies a little lower but is very straight and carries much farther than the typical way you play a shot that is below your feet. This has also worked well for the ball above your feet trying to hit a fade, and trying to draw the ball off a downhill lie. Where it has been a little less effective is on the uphill lie and trying to hit the fade, but it’s not been bad. So try this, you may like it, remember fight the slope.

Needless to say the last 3 to 4 weeks have been pretty frustrating and discouraging but trying to find your that day golf swing will continue. I have one 36 hole tournament this week and another 18 hole tournament later in the week. I am not brimming with confidence right now but you never know. That’s why I call this game goofy.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

Back in the Burgh, and three rounds into a stretch of time where I will be playing a lot of golf. I am not going to comment on these first three rounds and the next blog will be 2 weeks from today at the end of the golf fest. During this time I will be playing in three tournaments. If I am ever going to execute the answer this should be the time.

Do you remember that old Memorex cassette tape commercial where they would ask “Is it live or is it Memorex?” and they would show a famous artist singing or playing and you would have to figure out which one it was. This is similar to when you hit a bad shot on the golf course. Was the bad shot caused by a poor swing, or was it from a pre swing  problem. Even though I feel that 85 to 90% of all bad shots are caused from pre swing problems, how do you know for sure? Lets define pre swing problems. First there is the fundamental address position. You could be misaligned, too far or too close to the ball, or you could have poor posture. At this stage of the game I doubt it would be a grip issue. Then there are other pre shot factors. The lie of the ball, the lay of the land, your club selection, the conditions of the course, the weather, and how the shot fits your eye. The last one is particular important on the tee ball. Now I realize that any of these things, can lead to a bad swing which will result in a bad shot. If all the pre shot elements are right that still does not guarantee that your swing can not lead to a bad shot. So when the shot doesn’t turn out well which one is it? Is there a way to know? I am not too sure, but I do think this is one of the keys in trying to find your “that day golf swing or game”.   Naturally, just playing the odds, when the shot does not come off it is probably something that has happened before you took the club back. I really don’t have the answer to this question quite yet. I think in trying to figure this out will help in managing a round. One final point is that sometimes bad shots should be looked at as just one of those things, that are going to happen and sometimes should just be ignored or forgotten. The next two weeks should be interesting.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

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

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

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

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

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

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

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

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

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

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

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

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Trying to Execute the Answer

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf 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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Another rain shortened week, as it rained pretty much all day on Saturday. The three rounds I played were as up and down as the weather, with scores of 81, 73 and 84 today. Putting has been the big problem but ball striking today was not exactly superb. Since my game is in a state of limbo, I thought I would write about a subject that is strictly mental and certainly has nothing to do with swinging a golf club and that is green reading. Now I have read all the books and watched a lot of instruction on TV, concerning reading greens but it still can be one of the most mystifying and frustrating parts of golf. I can deal with over reading or under reading the break of a putt, but when I think a putt is going to break 3 inches to the left and it breaks right then that can really leave me bewildered and deflated. Now even though we see on TV, that the tour pros can misread a putt, one thing that they do, is they spend a lot more time than we can in actually reading the putt. They look from behind the hole, to the side, and from behind the ball. In fact, despite what you read about getting on the side below the hole to get a feel for the distance of the putt, the pros do a 360 around the line of the putt almost every time. If we took that much time to read our putts then every round would be of the 5 and 1/2 hour variety.   Now I don’t know if it would even help, if we took that much time in reading our putts. Your never going to read in any instruction book to take that much time in reading putts, because of the slow play issue. Let’s face it, that is where the tour game really slows down, when it comes to reading putts. Are greens that diabolical or are we making something hard that may not be all that difficult. No matter what method you use to read greens, when you are finish, there are one of three things that are going to happen.

1. You know how this putt is going to break and you are right, make a confident stroke and the ball goes in.

2 You know how this putt is going to break and you are wrong, make a confident stroke and miss.

3. You are unsure how the putt is going to break and you have to do something, so you try to commit to a line, make a tentative stroke and most likely miss the putt.

Now you can do 2 and 3 for only so long and you will begin to lose confidence and your putting begins to fall apart. Right now I do not see a solution to this problem. I’m not saying there isn’t one. I just don’t see it for right now. Yes, I know all the green reading rhetoric. Start reading the green from 20 to 30 yards out, it breaks toward the water, it breaks away from the mountain, there is a high point on the golf course and everything breaks away from that, and the grain grows toward the setting sun. My favorite is the one about water being poured on the green and you visualize where it is going to puddle and flow. Doesn’t that make you want to visit golf courses when it is pouring rain and take pictures of all the greens that are covered with water. So, green reading is a problem that must be solved if one is going to play to his full potential. The mental madness was more like just madness this week. Another week awaits and the weather is looking better. Maybe I will take 5 minutes to read every putt. How to become the most popular golfer in your group in just one easy lesson.