All posts by recgolfer

playing the game

One Way to Take Your Range Game to the Course

2 Comments

That’s the problem, isn’t it? You hit it just fine at the range (at least I hope you do), but at the course all that takes the day off.

First, though, let’s make sure there is a problem. At the range, you can hit ball after ball and no doubt many of them will be playable shots on the course. But how many? How good are you on the range?

Maybe you are taking your range game to the course and it’s not as solid as you think. But let’s say it is.

It’s likely is that the problem is not your swing, but that you’re doing something different mentally at the range than you do on the course. And maybe neither one of them is the right thing to do.

Just like you use the same swing, and it needs to be one that works, you need to have the same frame of mind both places, and it has to be the right one.

What you hear and read, and what I agree with, is that your mind has to be connected to your target. There needs to be a mental feeling that connects where the ball is with where you want it to go.

By doing that, you give your subconscious mind an order which it will carry out by directing your swing to hit the ball in the right direction.

If you just swing, the ball will go in the general direction of your target. That’s not good enough. With a definite, defined target, the chances of the shot ending up where it needs to, go way up.

And you learn how to do that by praticing it. Every ball you hit at the range has to have a defined target that you select.

Then at the course you just do what you have taught yourself to do.

Bonus: I like to hit the ball to a place in the air I want the ball to go through on its way to the target. Because if it goes there, it will come down in the right place.

Not to mention there are no hazards or other obstacles in the air that mess with my mind.

rules

The Out-Of-Bounds Rule – 3

Leave a comment

A few years ago, I saw Dustin Johnson do this on TV on a par-5 hole.

Tee shot, out of bounds.

From the tee again, hitting 3, busted his drive way down the fairway, dead center.

From the fairway, hitting 4, hit onto the green.

On the green, hitting 5, sank the putt for his par.

It’s an easy game.

rules

The Out-Of-Bounds Rule – 2

Leave a comment

I had this exchange by e-mail with a rules expert nine years ago.

ME. “The ruleshistory.com web site notes that between 1964 and 1968 the OOB rule allowed a player to drop a ball within two club-lengths of where the original ball crossed the out of bounds line if reasonable evidence existed that both that the ball had gone out of bounds and as to the point of crossing.

“Do you now why that rule was rescinded?”

HIM. “From memory, detailed scoring records kept by the USGA at the time showed that it was necessary to keep the penalties for out of bounds and lost at the same level to maintain a fair balance in the game. They had earlier, in 1960-61, experimented with distance only for a lost ball but could not overcome the big problem that there was often no realistic reference point for dropping with respect to a lost ball, and also that distance only was not an adequate penalty.

“It was recognised that having different penalties for lost and OOB reflected the earlier imbalance (eg players would claim a ball not found was actually OOB), and therefore the equitable conclusion was that OOB, lost and unplayable would all have the same penalty, stroke and distance which had originally been the case under the new joint USGA and R&A rules of 1952, including the new option for unplayable of two strokes without the distance at the player’s option.

“Hopefully, this helps you understand the changes, and why such experiments with penalties eventually failed.”

About a month later, I sent a reply I didn’t save, but was probably something like taking a drop and a one-stroke penalty from where the ball went out of bounds. His reply:

HIM. Your suggestion has been around for a long time, and resurfaces from time to time because, at first glance, it seems reasonable. However, detailed studies and experimentation by the USGA during the fifties and sixties shows that it is not workable without compromising the basic principles of the game.

There are a couple of issues to consider. One is the ‘field of play’. Virtually all sports have a well defined field of play, and the games have the principle of either you’re in or you’re out. There’s no distinction between a toe just on the line and a ball that ends up in row Z. The same principle exists in golf; the arena is perhaps not so easily defined but nevertheless there is a boundary beyond which play can not exist. How far OOB is enough? A wild slice that goes 100 yards OOB but is found rewards the player with a great escape. OK, it’s unfortunate for the player whose ball ends up only inches oob, but that’s life. There has to be a line somewhere.

“Golf is a test of skill, not of negotiation. If a player can avoid the consequences of his own bad shots by getting a cheap deal from the rules book, then the game loses it’s finest qualities and its integrity.

“The other issue, which I briefly mentioned earlier, is that of the principle of equity. Equity does not mean fairness, it means like treatment for like situations, regardless of how that situation came about.

“The idea of finding a ball out of bounds and treating it, in effect, like a lateral water hazard goes against this principle. Firstly it extends the playable bounds of the golf course endlessly and secondly, it unbalances the nature of the relationship between the main situations where stroke and distance are applicable. That is, any situation where a ball is out of play should have a similar remedy. A ball in a water hazard (or unplayable) is somewhat different in that the ball is still in play (even under 10ft of water!) and therefore a player may take the alternative option of a penalty stroke which is a kind of ‘buy back’ into the game, the equivalent of a recovery shot from the impossible position. Such an option cannot be valid for a ball that is already out of play otherwise another great principle of golf, that the nature of the game is to play ball from tee to hole by a succession of strokes, is violated.

“Hope this helps you to renconcile your thoughts. Bear in mind I am only talking of tournament play here – in casual games, like nearly every other golfer, I save time by just dropping a ball as well….”

Tomorrow, how a particular touring pro handled a tee shot he hit out of bounds.

rules

The Out-of-Bounds Rule – 1

Leave a comment

Does anyone think the out-of-bounds rule is rational? Stroke and distance seems like being penalized twice for one infraction.

Harvey Penick even said so in his Little Red Book:

“If you smash a drive a long way but the ball lands an inch out of bounds, the penalty is stroke and distance—in effect a two-shot punishment for what was nearly a good drive.”

A writer for Golf Digest went around with several rules authorities and came up with this article about it.

After you have read the article, I will be back tomorrow with a conversation I had with a rules maven about it several years ago.

books

Hogan’s Five Lessons Can Hurt You

2 Comments

Ben Hogan’s book, Five Lessons, is perhaps the most influential golf instruction ever written.

And yet it gives no help to almost any recreational golfer.

Every instruction book is really titled, How I Play Golf, by [you name it].

Hogan had a hook that kept him in the ranks of mediocrity. Five Lessons teaches us how he came to hit the ball to the right, and not to the left, and became Ben Hogan the legend.

Given that most recreational golfers slice, these five lessons are probably the worst instruction they could get.

For the rest, who do play right to left, the book is still full of bad advice, not about how to play more rightward, but about the swing in general.

Let’s start with the grip. From page 27: “School yourself when you’re taking your grip so that the thumb and the adjoining part of the hand across the V – the part that is the upper extension of the forefinger – press up against each other tightly, as inseparable Siamese twins. Keep them pressed together as you begin to affix your grip and maintain this airtight pressure between them when you fold the right hand over the left toward [your] target.”

The stance, from page 48: “A word of emphasis about the elbows. You want to press them as closely together as you can.” And the caption on page 49:” Keep the elbows and arms as close together as possible throughout the entire swing.” Page 56: “A word further about the knees. During the golf swing, the knees work ‘toward each other.’ Since they do, let’s start them that way to begin with, each knee pointing in.” and “If the right knee is pointed in it helps brace the right leg on the backswing, and the right leg must be sturdily braced to prevent the golfer from swaying his body laterally to the right as he swings the club back.”

The backswing. Page 71: “If the hips are turned too far around, then you can create no tension in the muscles between the hips and shoulders. A golfer wants to have this tension; he wants the midsection of his body to be tightened up, for this tension is the key to the whole downswing.” page 74: “Maximum tension in the muscles between the hips and shoulders produces maximum speed.” “The tighter the tension in these muscles, the faster the upper part of the body will unwind… .” p. 81: “Start in the position of address with the upper part of your arms and your elbows glued to the sides of your chest. Exaggerate this adhesion, if anything.”

The forward swing: from page 91, a section too long for me to quote in full, but a few key phrases are, “…these muscles [of the hips] must be stretched taut with tension that is just waiting for the golfer’s signal to be released.” “Same thing with the hips. The greater the tension the faster you can move them.”

Add this all up and you would such a ball of tension that could barely move.

This is how Ben Hogan swung the club, but you are not Ben Hogan. No one else is, either.

distance

How to Hit a Golf Ball 3,255 Yards

Leave a comment

Several weeks ago a golf magazines caught my eye. A banner on the cover said “217 ways to add 15 yards.” I’m good at doing math in my head, so I figured out that by following every one of those tips, I could hit the ball 3,255 yards and get around the front nine in 3.

We all want to hit the ball farther. Golf is easier to play, and more fun, when you can hit the ball a long way.

Golf magazines lead off every month with headlines like the one above. It’s all about sales, and distance sells.

You can find an article about hitting the ball straighter, but you have to look inside to find it.

The fact about distance, though, is that hitting the ball a long way is a talent. It’s not something you can learn how to do. You have it or you don’t.

When your technique is sound, meaning you hit the ball on the center of the clubface, you will hit the ball as far as your talent allows.

How do you get all the distance you’re due? Take a look at the golfers on the LPGA circuit. None of them are as big as you, or as strong as you, but they hit the ball a lot farther than you do. Why?

Because their mechanics are flawless. They deliver a centered, in-line hit every time. Their swings are efficient. Those are the models you should copy.

Here’s another truth about distance. Straight is better. Would you rather be known as someone who can hit a 7-iron 160 yards, or who can put a 7-iron in the green 80 percent of the time from whatever distance?

Both would be nice, but for recreational golfers it’s generally one or the other. Choose number two.

If you go for straight, you’ll get all the length you are capable of. And that will be enough to play good golf.

golf swing

The Elbows In the Golf Swing

Leave a comment

I would like to present to you a matter that isn’t emphasized in golf books or online, but which is a pretty important part of a golf swing. It concerns how you treat your elbows throughout the swing.

Your elbows are fairly close together at address, and you want you keep them that way when we swing. The major disconnection is the right elbow pulling away, either on the way up or on the way back into the ball.

The problem this causes is that the club wanders away from its address orientation. The shaft goes off in a different direction, or the clubface gets twisted out of square, or a new club path gets created.

When and how the elbows get “separated” doesn’t matter. Just keep the address feeling of spatial connection between the elbows the same throughout the swing and you have it.

But don’t listen to me. Ben Hogan, in his book, Five Lessons, and Mickey Wright, in her book, Play Golf the Wright Way, both advocate strongly for this point.

Hogan says, on page 48, “The closer you keep your two arms together, the better they will operate as one unit, when they operate as one unit, they tend pull all of the elements of the swing together.”

Wright says, on page 47 of her book, that a square clubface is an essential element of her swing and she attains it by, “maintain[ing] the relative position of my arms and elbows to each other throughout the swing. The tendency when we swing just let everything fly including our elbows. We want elbow control.”

Since elbow control as she calls it is a feeling, and not a technique, I can’t say how to do it. But when I do it, I feel that my elbows are connected in a way at address and they never leave each other’s company at any time during the swing.

Neither Hogan or Wright mentioned another benefit of swinging with the feeling of your elbows staying together, because I don’t think they had this particular problem, but in my experience it goes a long way to suppressing the hit impulse that ruins so many shots at the last moment.

golf swing

The Left Foot

Leave a comment

If you watch professional golfers these days, most of them keep their left foot (we’ll call it the leading foot so as not to leave out the left-handed golfers) planted firmly on the ground until after they have hit the ball.

There was a time when every one of them lifted their leading foot off the ground to some degree in their backswing. No more, it seems.

That doesn’t mean you should leave it on the ground in your golf swing. Here is one way to decide whether you should lift it or leave it.

When you have finished your backswing, how does your right side feel? By that I mean your trailing shoulder and the trailing side of your torso. Are they relaxed like they were at address? Or is there tightness or tension? Does it feel like that side is jammed up against something?

This might be the case if you are not expecially flexible, or if you are getting older and losing flexibility.

If you leave your leading foot on the ground and you feel something like this, you’re cramping your swing so it cannot flow freely. You need to let that foot come off the ground to loosen things up. How much to let it come up, you can figure out for yourself.

If you decide to lift your leading foot, the very first movement you need to do in the forward swing is to plant it back on the ground, not only to replace it, but to get your turn started. That gives you an unexpected bonus.

Power comes from hitting hard with your entire right side. Putting your leading heel back on the ground as the first move in the forward swing will, if you stay out of its way, unleash the turn and with it your entire right side coming into the ball. This is not a forceful power move. It’s a speed move that just happens. Let happen and see what you get.

Just a thought.

rhythm and tempo

Rose Goes Slow, Too

Leave a comment

A few days ago I mentioned that you should swing like you’re in no hurry to hit the ball.

The new Golf Digest came in the mail today with a cover article on Rose Zhang, who says the same thing.

“I can’t tell you how many times someone in my group would watch me for a few holes and then comment on how smooth and easy I swing the club.”

“When you focus on solid contact [which smooth and easy leads to] instead of trying to go all-out, your chance of keeping the ball in play and controlling distance is going to go way up.”

Yep.