All posts by recgolfer

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.

statistics

Goodbye to GIR

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A lot of golfers keep statistics on their game. What they do with them I don’t know.

But one of them always seems to be greens in regulation — GIR. And why that is one of them, for a recreational golfer, makes no sense.

It means something to professionals, because a GIR is a birdie chance. A missed green means that the birdie comes from a chip-in, and those don’t happen all that often.

But for recreational golfers, who are trying to make pars, and for whom birdies of any kind don’t happen all that often, there is a better stat, which I will call, if it even needs a name, Strokes to the Green.

How many strokes does it take you to get the ball up to the green — on it or beside it. That, to my mind is the real measure of your long game — how many strokes did it take before your greenside short game or putting could take over.

As a rough guide, half your strokes come from getting up to the green. The other half come from getting the ball in to the hole.

If you want to break 90, start by getting the ball up to the green on 45 strokes or less. Include penalty strokes in that count, too. If you want to break 80, get that number down 40 or less.

If you can do those things, and you still aren’t shooting the scores you want, well, that means either your short game or your putting needs work. Short shots plus putts should equal two on any hole. Three is OK, but only a few. Down in four? Eeegh!

But the key to scoring at any level is getting the ball up to the green in the fewest number of strokes. Pick your favorite touring pro. Would you rather have her or him get the ball up to the green for you, where you take over the chipping and putting, or the other way around?

I guarantee that Door Number One will produce the lowest score.

golf swing

Slow Swings Are Good Swings

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Almost every time I play, one of the persons in my group says how much they like to watch me swing. What they like about it is that I have simplified it so much, all extraneous motion has been eliminated. It is just swing back, swing through. Very simple.

The other thing they like, though only the most perceptive notice it enough to comment on it, it that the swing is slow. Not sluggishly slow, but there-is-no-hit-in-this-swing slow.

That’s easily explained. If I swing any faster than I do, I lose control of the swing and it falls apart. It goes in directions it shouldn’t. And the ball follows suit.

This is what I get from my slow swing. The ball goes where I want it to, and I get a surprising amount of distance because I hit the ball on the center of the clubface a lot.

Every recreational golfer should try it. Slow down your swing so it feels easy. Graceful. Especially through the impact area. Especially there.

And see what happens.

playing the game

Ten Good Golfing Habits

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Make these ten ideas your habits and you will cut down on the number of poorly-hit shots and increase the number of well-struck shots.

1. Take a careful look at your lie. It defines your shot choices.

2. Swing the club so it, not you, does the work it was designed to do.

3. Before you swing at the ball, take a practice swing and hold your finish. Where you end up looking is where you are aimed.

4. Every shot into the green, or from on the green to the hole, should be hit hard enough to pass the hole.

5. Use as light a grip pressure as you can, especially in the short game.

6. Swing with a tempo that keeps everything under control.

7. Look at every putt from behind, even the shortest ones.

8. Before you take the club away, draw an imaginary line straight through the ball to the target. Tell your unconscious mind to send the clubhead along that path through impact. Every stoke, drive to putt.

9. Do not hit shots you haven’t practiced. Remember that situation and save it for a trip to the range after the round.

10. Always take two practice strokes before any short game shot.

There are many more. Your job as a golfer is to find them.

commentary

Adios, LIV Tour

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In the recent past I have made my opinions known about the LIV tour and the people behind it. Now, it seems that the first question at a press conference for the guy who just won the week’s tournament is, “Are you going to join the LIV Tour?”

All this hoo-hah is about people who can earn (on the PGA Tour) almost as much in a couple of weekends as most of their fans will earn in a lifetime.

Besides the pros, who the f**k CARES about all this?

Both of these Tours could dry up and blow away and it would have no effect on my being able to go out to have fun playing golf with my friends.

I’ve had enough. This is my final statement about the whole affair. Promise.

people

Tom Weiskopf (1942-2022)

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Tom Weiskopf, winner of the British Open in 1976 and 16 PGA tournaments, died on August 20th at the age of 79, of pancreatic cancer. After his golfing career was over, he became a noted golf course architect and television announcer.

In 1973 he won five tournaments in an eight-week span, including the British Open and Canadian Open back-to-back.

As an architect, he created courses that challenged experts, but didn’t leave the rest of us behind. “I may not give you access to every pin,” he once said, “but I’ll give you the middle of the green every time.”

Weiskopf was also the owner of one of the loveliest and yet most powerful swings in history. It was said to be the model for the logo the PGA Senior Tour used for many years.

Read this Golf Digest interview from 2008.

The Golfweek obituary.

golf swing

Relaxing Your Shoulders When You Swing the Golf Club

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We all know that tension leads to poor ball-striking. We try to hit the ball hard when we really should be hitting the ball fast. You get fast for no extra charge when you are relaxed, especially your arms.

But it is hard to relax your arms. They might be relaxed at the start, but they tense up as you swing.

That’s because you’re thinking of relaxing the wrong thing. To have relaxed arms, you have to have relaxed shoulders.

At address, relax your shoulders. Now when you take the club back, keep your shoulders relaxed. One sign that you are doing this right is that they do not lift up. Think that they stay down.

At first, it might feel like you are lowering them, but that is because raising them is your habit.

I promise you if you learn have relaxed shoulders throughout the swing, you will get free clubhead speed with no extra effort. Less effort, actually.

equipment

Care for the Grips on Your Clubs During the Round

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Before you got to the course to play, rinse off the grips on your clubs to get the dirt and oil off them, and to restore the tacky feel.

(But I know you always do that, don’t you?)

Take care of them during the round, too. Periodically you should take out clubs that you have been hitting more than a few times (driver, for example), and wet down the grip with just a few drops of water from the water bottle you carry.

(You do carry a water bottle, don’t you?)

Give the wet grip a good rubdown with your hand and wipe it off with the towel you carry.

(You do carry a towel, don’t you?)

All that should take only a few seconds. Doing that will make your grips feel, well, grippy, throughout the round.

The next time you watch a professional golf tournament on TV, you will notice the players wiping down the grip, especially late in the round.

It’s a little thing that could make a big difference.