All posts by recgolfer

golf courses

Back From Oakmont

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When the U.S. Open was played at Oakmont in 2007, Tiger Woods said that a 10-handicapper wouldn’t break 100. He was being too kind. More like 120. Maybe.

This course is so hard I don’t know where to begin. Natalie Gulbis said she played it five times before Women’s Open week and never came close to breaking par. I completely understand why.

The fairways are not that wide, and if you don’t hit into the rough that looks innocent but grabs your club instead of letting it slide through, there are the bunkers. These things are big, and they are surrounded by a high mound on the side toward the hole. Chip out. Between these two, you can use up par just getting to the green.

The course is quite hilly. A level lie is rare. There are blind shots into greens. There are shots downhill into greens that slope away from you. Fairway slopes feed the ball toward the bunkers. I saw one golfer hit 7-iron off the tee of a 558-yard hole to avoid the bunkers.

Then there are the greens. The ones on which Sam Snead said he marked his ball and the coin slid off. Fast, slopy, have you ever seen someone go tink! on a 20-foot putt and have it go five feet by the hole?

If I were allowed to play here, I would take a double bogey and not be disturbed, a bogey and be very happy, a par and faint.

But let me tell you as well, this course is beautiful, and it manicured in every sense of the word. I have putted on greens shaggier than the fairway grass.

And it’s big. You can see almost the whole thing from the clubhouse. It looks like no other golf course you’ve ever seen. Pictures do not do it justice.

The men play there again in 2016. Make your travel plans.

short game

Make Short Game Practice Sessions Short

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The more practice the better. Who can argue with that? But I would suggest that when it comes to the short game, that means frequency, not duration.

The more times you go out to practice your short game, the better. That’s more times you’re exposing yourself to those shots anew, teaching yourself to get into the short game mode at will, as needed. Because you don’t know when you will be hitting short shots on the course.

Driver? By now you know exactly on which holes of your home course you’ll be using a driver. No surprises there. You know that on every green you’ll be putting.

You know you’ll be hitting an iron from the fairway. You have lots of time ahead of these shots to prepare your mind for hitting them. (And you should, by the way. As soon as you putt out, for example, you should be thinking “Driver swing,” and have your mind start giving your body the directions it needs to hit a good drive.)

The short game, though, is entirely unpredictable. You have no idea until it happens that you’ll have to chip onto the green. And then, you have no idea just what kind of shot you’ll have to hit until you finally get up to the ball.

That means you have much less time to gear your mind toward chipping in comparison to the other types of shots you hit. And that means you have to be able to turn on your short game mind on a moment’s notice.

So practice doing that. Drop a ball beside the practice green, chip it to the cup, putt it out, then go do something else. The ideal way to practice a short shot would be, if your practice facility is laid out like this, to hit a few long shots then walk over to the green, chip a ball , putt out, then walk back to the range. Just do that back and forth–range, green; range, green.

Give yourself one chance to hit that chip next to the hole. Hitting a dozen chips from the same place might teach you the technical aspects of the shot, but that doesn’t teach you the mind set you need to get that one shot close when you’re on the course.

Basic short game shots are easy to learn. Once you can hit them reasonably well, it all comes down to the state of your mind on the course when you have that one chance. Being comfortable and confident in that condition is what you need to practice to become a short game wizard.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

playing the game

The Importance of Ball-Striking

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So often you hear touring professionals say that your score is made from 100 yards in, so that’s where you (the amateurs they’re taking to) should spend most of your time practicing. The trouble is, they’re projecting the way they score onto your game. That doesn’t make sense.

The professional game is built around getting the ball in the hole as quickly as possible once it gets to the green. That’s how you make birdies, and save pars if you miss. But the pros are taking for granted that they’re already getting the ball up to the green as quickly as it is possible to do, and we aren’t.

If you count on hitting 12-14 greens per round, then the short game is what will make you stand out. But if you generally hit just three or four greens, how is your short game going to help you break 80? or even 90?

If you want to get your score down, you have to stop wasting shots getting the ball up to and onto the green. Ball-striking, hitting more fairways and more greens, is the key. That means getting swing lessons and diligently practicing what you were taught.

I’m not saying you should neglect your work around the green, but all you need to be for now is to be adequate. The quickest way for you to get into the 70s is to have a swing that reliably hits the ball straight. Once you’re there, you can become a short game and putting wizard if you want to start chasing par. But get that swing straightened out first.

One last way to look at this. Which would led to a lower score? For a touring professional to hit all your full swings shots, or to hit all your short shots and putts?

I thought so.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

health

Mid-Round Nutrition for Golfers

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My pro, Howard Robertson of the Willow Lake Golf Center in Keizer, Oregon, writes a column in the local paper which appears every Sunday. last Sunday, he wrote about hydration and nutrition during a round of golf.

He mentioned this to me once during a lesson, that the touring pros are always experimenting for the right mix of snacking to keep their hydration and blood sugar levels at optimum levels throughout the round.

After all, you’re out there on your feet, in the heat, for four hours or more, and you need more than breakfast and a drink of water at the turn to keep yourself going.

He recommends sipping from a diluted sports drink on very tee and munching on an energy snack every three or four holes. I do, too. Take a good drink, too, not little sips. Research in the hiking industry shows that sipping frequently does not replace lost fluids as well as drinking several ounces of fluid at one time.

I take along the food and drink that I take when I go hiking the the Cascade Mountains. For hydration, I empty a package of Gatorade powder and a package of Crystal Light into a 48-oz water bottle. The food I carry is carry is trail mix–nuts, carbs, raisins, M&Ms–that can be digested quickly.

What you don’t want to eat is protein. It takes a long time to digest and its digestion is water-intensive. That’s why a hot dog at the break isn’t a good idea.

Sipping water as you go along should be evident, and the snack food? I mean, do you really need any encouragement to eat that stuff, and besides, you get a chance to schmooze with CartGirl if you buy it from her instead of bringing it with you.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

equipment

“New” Irons, “New” Driver

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I played with the new irons today. Ben Hogan Apex Red Lines, c. 1989. They’re wonderful. Glad I bought them. Great balance, great feel, smaller sweet spot than my 2003 Apex’s, but what a sweet spot.

I figured since I would be playing with 22-year-old irons, I should play with a driver of similar vintage, too, so I brought along my Wilson 4275. Laminated maple. Head smaller than your fairway metal. Shaft two inches shorter than my metal driver. Weighs two ounces more.

It took a few holes to get the idea, but I was hitting it straight, not as high, but it ran and ran. I lost distance, but not so much it affected how I played any of the holes on this course.

It’s going to stay in the bag. The shorter shaft and heavier weight somehow combine to give me more feel of the club throughout the swing, and swing in a more controlled way.

My two-putter experiment is working out nicely. I use an Acushnet Bullseye for everything except the shorties. For the ones about four feet and in, I use a Wilson Billy Casper mallet.

I guess this all means you can be creative with the clubs you use, and pick the ones that make you feel the best about getting the ball into the hole. And why not? Your game belongs to you, not the equipment manufacturers.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

equipment

New Set of Irons Arrived

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I got a new set of irons today. Ben Hogan Apex Redline, built in 1988. So they’re not new, but they have a reputation as being the pinnacle of the Apex line of Hogan irons.

I bought them on eBay a few weeks ago, and took them straight to the pro shop after they arrived to get them fitted (+1 inch in the shafts, new lie angles). New grips come with that, too.

So this morning I picked them up took them to the course to play a round. Wow. Triple wow. They have such superb balance, and the sweet spot is sweet beyond belief.

I think I’m going to like these clubs.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

short game

Laying Up

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I suppose you noticed that Graeme McDowell laid up on the 72nd hole a few days ago instead of going for all the distance he could muster. Smart. You should do that, too.

It’s good to be able to pitch on from 30-70 yards or so, but it’s even better to avoid those distances if you can. Shots from there require finesse. You never know just how they’ll work out.

Find a distance that is comfortable for you to hit into the green with a pitching wedge using a full, not-holding-back swing. That might be right around 100-110 yards.

You’ll use this strategy most often on a par 5. Say after your tee shot you have 280 yards to the green. If you hit your fairway wood, you might leave yourself 70-80 yards into the green. Tough shot.

Instead, hit a shot that will cover no more than 180 yards. That will set you up at your comfortable distance with that pitching wedge.

Or say there’s only 240 left. Hit a 7-iron and a wedge. If you can’t reach the green, divide up a big distance into two easy ones.

Closer is not always better. Eating up yards doesn’t help you if it leaves you with a difficult shot. Play easy shots that set up easy shots. Golf is much simpler that way.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

commentary

My Eyes Are Still Bleary

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Yesterday the U.S. Open was on TV from 10 a.m. to about 7 p.m. Guess how much of it I watched. That isn’t a trick question. If you said, “All of it,” you’re close to being right.

How can you not watch Pebble Beach on a sunny day? Even the “inland” holes are gorgeous. No wonder we gladly fork over $425 to play a round there.

I didn’t stay parked for all that time, I would go out and do a bit of yard work, hit some balls in the backyard, fall asleep on the couch, but I overall I saw a lot of golf.

Phil caught fire, Tiger did squat, and I don’t know how many players I saw get eaten up by the green complex around number 14.

That’s why I love the Open. It’s the people’s major. It makes players take 8s and 9s. When’s the last time they made an 8 on a hole? When’s the last time you made one? Welcome to our game.

Today I have a barbecue to go to in the afternoon so I’ll only get to watch for an hour or so. Just as well. My eyes need the rest.

But tomorrow, my favorite day of the year, I’ll be there for every shot. I hope all of you get to see it, too.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

tournaments

Greatest U.S. Opens

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This morning I’m going to the range for my bi-weekly workout, down to the stadium to run the stairs, then home to watch the opening round of the Open. Really pulling for Phil this week.

Here is my list of great/memorable/pivotal/ Opens:

1913 – American kid Ouimet beats the English giants Vardon and Ray and American golf is off the ground.
1932 – Sarazen plays the last 28 holes in 100 strokes to win.
1951 – Hogan plays it safe for three rounds, then decides that strategy is getting him nowhere and attacks during the fourth round, wins.
1960 – Arnold Palmer becomes ARNOLD PALMER and professional golf takes off.
1964 – Ken Venturi was barely able to stand up in the afternoon round because of the heat. This one is the triumph of courage over pain, not Tiger having an owie in 2008.
1966 – Palmer’s shocking collapse. Gave back what he took in 1960. The end. Deflated. Had he won this, he could have won five or six more majors.
1973 – You just don’t shoot 63 in the final round to win the U.S. Open.
2009 – Not one for the ages, but the final round was High Drama. So many players challenged all day, not just on the last few holes, and Glover didn’t flinch.

Enjoy the Open. It’s the people’s major.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

commentary

My Favorite Time of the Year

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In just a few days, hopefully tonight, pro basketball will be over. Hockey is over. Football hasn’t started up yet. It’s that glorious time of year when for about six week the only two sports in the sports pages will be baseball and golf.

Our minor league baseball season starts Friday the 18th. What better way to spend a summer evening than out at the park with a warm beer (it starts out cold, but doesn’t stay that way for long), a ball game in front of you and a good friend beside you?

What better way to send a summer day than out on the links? As good as that sounds, this week we go one better. We stay glued to out TV watching the U.S. Open. Formerly the National Open. This is the THE tournament for me. The courses are scary, this year the course is beautiful and scary, and they play recreational golf.

Really? Take a look. Pars are at a premium, bogeys are to be had by the fistful. Welcome to our game.

364 3/4 days out of the year I’m fairly agreeable and I’ll go along with whatever you want to do. But on the 1/4 day, when the final round of the U.S. Open is being played, I’m not available. Just don’t call me.

I’m glad they play the Open early in the summer. I couldn’t wait any longer than I already do.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com