All posts by recgolfer

mental game

A Cure For Being Ball Bound

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The golf ball on the ground can make us do things. Stupid things.

Golf is so easy. All you have to do when you swing at the ball is reproduce your practice swing. Easy!

But the ball gives us other ideas. Bad ideas.

Here’s a good idea.

When you take your practice swing, all see below you is turf. That’s all your mind is perceiving.

So, when you swing at the ball, see the ground on each side of the ball and fill in the ground under the ball with your imagination, and swing at all that, just like you did when the ball wasn’t there.

Now you’re back to what was going through your mind during your perfect practice swing, and you can easily reproduce that practice swing and just let everything else take care of itself.

The ball is still there, you can still see it, but you have given your mind the command to see the ground instead.

(There’s only room in your mind for one thought at a time, and that thought needs to be what to do. What not to do, as in don’t think about the ball or something like that, is entirely irrelevant.)

So instead of focusing on the ball, focus on the ground beneath the ball. Easy!

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A Few Thoughts on Reading Five Lessons

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Probably no golf instruction book has been more widely read, dissected, and discussed than Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons. What he said was the sum of his experience with the golf swing, but it has meaning beyond that when other golfers interact with its advice. These are my thoughts.

Five Lessons was serialized in Sports Illustrated, which my father subscribed to in the time when it was a literary magazine with a definite East Coast influence. There was coverage of polo, sailboat racing, horse racing, and Charles Goren had a bridge column. Ivy League football got covered as well as the national heavyweights.

I devoured the articles, and still have the copy of the book my father gave me in the early 1960s, when I was about twelve years old, much too young to even begin to understand and appreciate what he was talking about.

But I read it anyway, along with Johnny Revolta’s Shortcuts to Better Golf, which I checked out of the library countless times until I got a copy for my birthday in 1965.

As every golf book that has ever been written should have the title, How I Play Golf, which only Tiger Woods has done, such is Five Lessons. The opening chapter on the grip, while being the most thorough discussion if this important fundamental you will ever read, is about how to grip the club like Ben Hogan does. See instead my advice in A Basic Golf Swing.

Much of what Hogan says to do are not really what he does, but what he thinks he is doing because of how it felt to him. You know what we say now, feel is not real.

For example, in the stance, the placement of the feet and the position of the elbows do not match pictures of him in action. But those are small points.

What I want you to appreciate are two things. You have to read the entire book, because one sentence can speak louder than an entire paragraph. Second, and it seems as if I am contradicting myself, do not take any sentence as a stand-alone statement. You can be lead astray.

Take for example his oft-quoted statement, “As far as applying power goes, I wish that I had three right hands!” Yes, but that is not the whole story.

He said that in the context of “the left hand driving all the time,” and “AT IMPACT THE BACK OF THE LEFT HAND FACES TOWARD THE TARGET. THE WRIST BONE IS DEFINITELY RAISED.”

If the left hand is in this position it cannot be overpowered by the right hand, which would turn the clubface over and produce a wicked hook, the bane of Hogan’s existence.

And a few pages earlier, Hogan says quite clearly, regarding the hands, “YOU MUST HIT AS HARD WITH THE LEFT AS WITH THE RIGHT.”

In other words, read the whole book, not just the parts you like.

Hogan’s book is about causes, not about effects, by and large. It seems that he has not even mentioned two of the most important things a golfer has to accomplish at impact: ball first, ground second, and my favorite, the hands led the clubhead.

But if you read carefully, there they both are, within the space of eight lines of text on page 104. “For one thing, it helps you strike the ball absolutely clean, before the club takes turf.” This is followed a few lines later by, “Second, since this slight supination action [of the left hand] places the hands a shade ahead of the clubhead at impact, some loft is subtracted from the face of the club.”

He goes on to say about the latter that this gives you more distance by turning a seven-iron into a five-iron. Actually, Hogan should have stayed with his main point, which is that if you use your hands in such a way that the left hand does not allow itself to be overpowered by the right, the evidence is that the hands lead the clubhead at impact.

To say it backwards, if the hands lead the clubhead at impact, it is not possible that the right hand has overpowered the left, and it is up to the left hand to make sure that does not happen.

What about Hogan’s secret?

In 2009, Jody Vasquez published a book, Afternoons With Mr. Hogan, in which he revealed Hogan’s secret as Hogan revealed it to him. It has to do with how the right knee breaks in the forward swing. Why was that not in Five Lessons? “I’m not telling them this one!” Hogan replied when Vasquez asked him.

But he dropped a hint. On page 92, Hogan says, “The right knee breaks in, definitely, toward the target, boosting the mounting velocity of the swing.” There it is. Hogan’s secret if you can appreciate it, which few if any readers did back then or do now.

These are just a few examples. There are many more. Five Lessons is not an easy book to read if you want to absorb its teachings. But it’s worth the effort.

practice

How To Not Fool Yourself at the Driving Range

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Real quick.

If you go to the driving range and an idea comes into your head to try something new and you try it and it starts working so well, ball after ball, that you can’t believe it and you think you have found The Secret To Golf that will solve the game forever, here’s what to do.

Sit down. Watch other people hit the ball. Chill.

After a few minutes, step onto your mat and start doing that same thing again.

If it works, you’re onto something.

If you can’t seem get it to work anymore, though, give it up. You got into a groove, you had some fun, but odds are that trying to recover that magic will make things worse, not better.

hands lead the clubhead

The Hands Lead the Clubhead – V

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Because I regard the hands leading the clubhead through impact as the #1 technical fundamental, I am constantly looking for ways to make it easier to do. This is my latest attempt. It involves trust.

Very simply put, when I begin my forward swing, I maintain the angle in my wrists so it feels that while my hands are moving forward, the clubhead is staying behind and I trust that it will get there by itself at the right time.

Don’t worry about that angle. It will undo itself just fine and at the right time if you stay out of its way.

That’s it. Move the hands and trust. Take myself, what I’m doing, out of the equation.

I have discovered that when I try to make my hands lead the clubhead in some way, it might work for a while, but then I start thinking about how I am doing it and it all falls apart.

Swing the hands forward and trust. Remove the pressure that arises by trying to make something happen and turn it into trusting that it will happen.

I hope this all makes sense.

shot-making

The Putter Is a Rescue Club, Too

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Have you ever found the ball under a tree and the only way out is to chip under low-hainging branches?

A few weeks ago, I hit a drive off the fairway and right beside a tree with low-hanging branches. I mean a foot off the ground.

I thought I could hit the ball under those branches and back into and down the fairway by taking my 5-wood, playing the ball back to deloft the club, and hitting gently.

Didn’t work. The ball hit a branch and dropped straight down. A chip into the fairway that I now had room for had me hitting four right about here instead of hitting three well down the fairway.

A few days ago, I got into the same dilemma but behind a green. My only shot was toward the hole, because anything sideways would have been going from bad to worse.

I thought, I need even less loft, and the light bulb went on. My putter! With only about 4° of loft, a firm putting stroke would keep the ball low and get it back in the fairway.

So, I took out my putter and hit the shot. I was about twenty yards behind the green, and unfortunately hit it just a bit too hard. The ball got under the branch with room to spare, but ran onto the green like an out of control freight train going downhill.

I won’t say what happened next, but later in the round I had the same problem again! Out comes the putter, and this time don’t hit it so hard. I didn’t. My shot from green-high got under branches and rolled on to the green.

Remember, it’s a firm stroke, somewhat like you might make in hitting a 50-foot put. It is not a whack. If you try it that way, you are likely to mishit the ball and end up somewhere else where you don’t want be.

Now I have a new trouble shot, and so do you.

Gold Post, golf swing

Ernie, Fred, and Vijay

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Let me point you to a video that shows four key swing principles very clearly. It is of Ernie Els, Fred Couples, and Vijay Singh warming up.

You will have to watch it several times to see all of what is there.

What you will see right off is their perfect rhythm and tempo.

Then notice how their arms stay together instead of flying all over the place.

Then notice how their suspension point does not move.

Finally, and it’s hard to see, but it’s there, their hands get back to the ball before the clubhead does.

The one thing it does not show is how they maintain the critical address angle.

If you are hitting the ball well, keep doing it. But if you aren’t, you might consider putting these five things into your swing.

people

Rocky the Driving Range Dog

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This post is somewhat off topic for this blog, but I have to let you see it anyway. The guy who owns the driving range I go to adopted Rocky earlier this summer, and posted this on the Oregon Humane Society Facebook page yesterday. I have known Rocky from the start. I almost cried reading it. It’s a great story. And yes, he does hop around like a bunny.


golf swing

Percy Boomer’s Essentials of the Golf Swing

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For years I have been reading Percy Boomer’s book, On Learning Golf. Every year I get something new out of it. In chapter III he lists what he considers to be the essentials of the swing. They never really connected with me until I read the list yesterday.

I realized that quite by coincidence they are all contained in my writings, either Six Fundamentals of the Recreational Golf Swing, released in 2014, or A Basic Golf Swing, released earlier this year. If you have read those two pieces you’re already familiar with them. Here they are.

1. It is essential to turn the body round to the right and round to the left, without moving either way. In other words this turning movement must be from a fixed pivot.

(If you keep the knob at the base of your neck from moving until after the ball is struck, you will have this. In chapter VII boomer explains this point as turning in the barrel. This book is the origin of that image.)

2. It is essential to keep the arms at full stretch throughout the swing―through the back swing, the down swing, and the follow through.

(I describe this point as getting your elbows close together at address and feeling as if they stay that close together throughout the swing.)

3. It is essential to allow the wrists to break fully back at the top of the swing.

(They break by themselves because of the momentum of the golf club’s movement. Do not do this deliberately.)

4. It is essential to delay the actual hitting of the ball until as late in the swing as possible.

(I have described this for years as the hands leading the club head into the ball.)

5. It is essential not to tighten any muscle concerned in the reactive part of the swing (movement above the waist).

(“Maintaining a state of complete relaxation in your arms from start to finish, especially though impact, contributes greatly to attaining the swing speed you are capable of.”)

6. It is essential to feel and control of the swing as a whole and not to concentrate upon any part of it.

(“Dividing the swing into parts is done only to present the differing techniques that must be applied at each of its stages. The golf swing is really just one whole movement.”)

Boomer follows point 6 by saying,

“In a sense this last point is the most vital. The swing must be considered and felt as a single unity, not as a succession of positions or even a succession of movements. The swing is one and indivisible.”

There you have it. That is Boomer’s list. It does not include rhythm and tempo in his list, though he does have an entire chapter on rhythm later in the book.

tournaments

My Day With the LPGA

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I went to the Amazingcre Portland Classic yesterday. It is the oldest continuous tournament on the LPGA circuit, having begun in 1972. These are my impressions.

First of all, these ladies are good. Really good. Remember the last time you went to the range and hit one really good shot, the best you can do?

I watched them warm up, and the shot they hit is better than your best shot and they hit it every time. That good.

It looks on TV like they all swing the same way, but from up close, and we got really close on the tees, they are all different. Some swing smoothly throughout. Some give it a little oomph just before impact, some just wind up and whack it. But you know? The oomphers and whackers are gals you haven’t heard of and likely never will–a word to the wise.

Nelly Korda. I watched her warm up. The rhythm, calmness, and grace of her swing was breathtaking. It is something that doesn’t show up on TV. You have to see it in person to understand it.

On a 546-yard hole, she waited for the green to clear before she hit her second. A woman next to me in the gallery had a laser range finder and measured Korda’s shot. Asked her, “What did you get?” and she said, “267”. Sure enough, Korda hit the ball just a few yards short of the green. She chipped on from about 60 feet to three feet and sank the putt for an easy birdie.

Overall she played very well from tee to green. Her approach shots left her with one makeable birdie putt after another, but they wouldn’t go in. One frustrated gallery member commented, “She should be 12 under by now!”

The problem is that the greens on this course look pretty flat, but they aren’t. I was watching lip-outs all day.

Coming down the 18th fairway, following the Georgia Hall group, there was a head cover lying the rough. I picked it up and found that came off one of her clubs. I gave it to her caddy, and while she was hitting, he gave me a ball from her bag!

In the morning, it was very quiet. Not many people had shown up yet. Often my buddy and I were the entire gallery.

We followed Anne van Dam for a while, because she hits it a ton. Then we followed Leona McGuire for a few holes, but she wasn’t having her best day and ended up missing the cut.

We also followed Christina Kim for a few holes. She has slimmed down, and isn’t really that big to begin with. She wasn’t doing her silly thing, but had a doing business face on the whole time and played well.

It used to be that we would see fairway, fairway, fairway off the tee, but these gals are hitting it so hard and so far now, that the misses are starting to show up. Still, lots of fairways get hit.

Slow play has been mentioned as a problem on the LPGA Tour, but I didn’t see any of that. Everyone was ready to play when it was their turn. One the green, they tended to take one look, stand up, and hit their putt. Of course, you can do some of your green-reading ahead of the time.

I only saw one player who was using the Aimpoint method, along with her caddy. She missed a ~20-footer about a foot to the left. Aimpoint is a gimmick, in my book.

One thing is clear above all. Like I said, everyone out there is really good. But a shot here and a shot there, just that much, is what separates the stars from the weekly grinders from the ones who just aren’t good enough.

Go see an LPGA tournament if there is one near where you live. Unlike the men’s game, the ladies’ game is similar enough to yours that you can understand it, and be inspired by it.

practice

How to Practice Impact

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Golf is hard. You have to swing a club back behind your head, then around in front of you again so that the clubface has perfect geometry when it meets the ball while travelling at at least 80 mph. For some you, 100 mph or more.

Since the only part of the swing that really counts is when the clubface meets the ball, you get good at that by practicing just that. Here’s how I do it.

With a 7-iron in my hand, I’ll take the club not even halfway back. The shaft is still short of being parallel to the ground.

The important thing is for the sole of the clubhead, as you turn your head to look at it, to be pointing a bit up and to the left (not straight up and down!). This is the sign that the clubface is still square to the clubpath.

Now swing the club gently forward and through the ball, making sure of two key points. The hands lead the clubhead by just a bit. Don’t overdo it.

And, the sole of the clubhead strikes the ground for the first time about an inch in front of, that is, to the target side, of the ball. Look at that spot before you take away the club, and keep looking at it throughout the swing.

And this swing is slow. No rushing, no trying to “hit” the ball. Just swing the club with good rhythm and hit the ground in front of the ball.

I think once you have this figured out you will be very pleased with the way the ball launches off the clubface and into the air, and flies straight away from you.

Do this again, and again. You are practicing the feel of how the club moves through the impact zone. Note: not “how you move the club,” but “how the club moves.” That’s a big distinction.

After a couple dozen successful shots, try a longer swing, at the same speed, with that same rhythm, taking the club back the same way, and aiming for the ground one inch in front of the ball, hands ahead of the clubhead.

Good shot? Good! Now do the drill a couple dozen more times before you take another full swing. Etc.