equipment

Hybrid Irons

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Long irons have always been the clubs of last resort for many recreational golfers. On the one hand, when you hit it, the ball flight is just a joy to watch. On the other hand, you might get only one shot like that out of who knows how many tries.

I could hit my 4-iron like that two out of three times, my 3-iron about one out of three times, and my 2-iron was for the tee only. I had three clubs in my bag that weren’t doing me any favors.

One day about five years ago I went to the range and there was a Ben Hogan demo day. Ben Hogan line was still a prominent player in the equipment market. I talked to the rep about the hybrid irons I had been hearing about and he gave me a 21-degree club, equivalent to a 3-iron, to try out.

I walked over to an open mat and dropped a few balls. The club felt a bit heavy, the head as a lot heavier than my 3-iron, so I decided I would take an easy swing at the ball the first time. Whack! The ball flew out straight and long, as good as any 3-iron I had ever hit.

“That’s nice,” I thought, “let me try that again.” Whack! Same thing. Straight, high, and far. A third easy swing, same result. I don’t hit my 9-iron that well three times in a row.

So I walked back to see the rep and said, “What is it with this? I just hit the best long iron shots of my life three times in a row.”

He launched into the spiel about how easy they were to hit and how everybody should replace their long irons with hybrid irons. I needed no convincing.

About a month later I ordered a 19-, 21-, and 24-degree hybrid and tossed out my long irons. I would recommend you do the same, and you might take a close look at replacing your 5-iron with a hybrid iron, too, if your 5 is getting hard to hit.

Two things about using hybrid irons. They’re meant to replace irons, so you still have to hit down on the ball like you do with your other irons. Trying to sweep the ball as if it were a fairway wood doesn’t work too well. Second, and I tell myself this every time I get set to swing one, stay out of its way. Just make an easy swing and let the club do the work for you. The more you try to force the shot with a hybrid the worse it will be for you.

There’s no substitute for practice, but if you want to buy some good shots, get some of these.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

playing the game, ten rules

Ten Rules For Playing Better Golf – Part 2

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Rules 1-5 were about shotmaking. These rules concern thinking about your game and supporting your game.

Rule Six: figure out what score you expect to make on the hole you’re playing, given your skills, and play to get that score. If you’re not good enough to get a par, but a bogey isn’t a problem, play for bogey and get pars when they come. Depending on your skill level, even playing for double bogey might be the best strategy. Playing for par on a hole that is too much for you leads to high scores. As you improve, you can re-evaluate certain holes, but never overreach. That’s how you throw away strokes needlessly.

Rule Seven: have go-to clubs and use them constantly. I have a 24° hybrid iron that is my ticket to good scoring. It hit it as my second shot on par 5s and long par 4s. I don’t care if it leaves me short sometimes. The ball is always in an ideal position for the next shot. Around the green, I love my sand wedge. Not because it makes me look cool, but because I’ve practiced a lot with it and I know what I’m doing.

Rule Eight: identify the one error that’s hurting you most and fix it. I played with a guy who hit marvelous irons, putted well, and had a decent short game, but could not hit the fairway with a driver to save his life. Every drive careened to the right, in the rough, in the trees. He shoots in the high 90s, and if he could just get the ball in the fairway, he’d be shooting 85 and under. We could all improve in every phase of the game, but I’ll bet there’s one flaw that when corrected will turn you loose.

Rule Nine: be happy. I play much better when I’m having fun with the people I’m playing with. Other players have told me they, too, started playing better when they stopped being so intense out there, and just lightened up. The problem is that we have an overinflated opinion of how good we are because of the good shots we hit. We hit bad shots, too, and they are as much a part of our game as the good ones. So just take what you get and have fun. That’s what the rest of us are doing.

Rule Ten: get lessons. (1) Go to the range and watch people beat balls. Based on the results you wonder why they even bother. If they would get a few lessons they would be hitting the ball the way they imagine they can. (2) I played with a guy once who was pretty good, but was terrible in that 20-40 yard in-between range. He said, “I just can’t hit these shots.” I thought, “So why don’t you get a lesson??!!” (3) How many of you get around in 32 putts or less consistently? But a teaching pro I know says he gives a thousand lessons in a year and maybe fifty of them are putting lessons. If you want to play better, GET LESSONS.

playing the game, ten rules

Ten Rules For Playing Better Golf – Part 1

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The object of golf is to get the ball in the hole with as few strokes as possible. Every recreational golfer would get an ‘A’ if golf was a written test, but we don’t do so well on the practical exam. These ten rules will help.

Rule One: get the ball in the fairway. Use the longest club off the tee that gets the all in the fairway three times out of four. That means most of the time you WON’T be using your driver. One hundred eighty yards into the fairway beats two-twenty into the weeds/water/out-of-bounds every time.

Rule Two: get your approach shot up to the green, not necessarily on it, and away from trouble. Trouble is most often to the left, right, and back, but the front is usually wide open. Thus, playing short and chipping on from a good lie is often a better choice than hitting into challenges that can cost you strokes. Counting greens hit in regulation (GIR) is for highly skilled golfers. Until you get very good, GIR has nothing to do with making a good score, and the pursuit will definitely harm your score.

Rule Three: chip so you can start putting. Just getting a chip shot on the green is much more important than getting the ball close to the hole. Have you played a tough chip at the hole and had the ball run all the way across the green, when you could have played an easy shot for twenty feet away and two putts, and saved yourself a stroke?

Rule Four: think about where you want to leave your approach putt and hit it there. Thinking about the hole from thirty feet away, especially if the contours are tricky, is why we blow it eight feet by. If you think about hitting the ball to the vicinity of the hole, you’ll have a much easier second putt, and occasionally the first one will go in!

Rule Five: hit only reliable shots that you’re good at. Avoid using clubs you don’t hit well from the situation you’re in. Avoid hitting shots you haven’t practiced, or that have a big disaster factor lurking in the background, especially when there’s little to gain. If the voice inside your head says, “I’m not too sure about this,” listen! Get a different club, choose a different shot, or both. From wherever you are, there’s a shot that makes sense to you. Hit that one.

See also Ten Rules For Playing Better – Part 2

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

golf humor, rhythm and tempo

The Best Golf Swing Lesson I Ever Had

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I have a list that I look at before I go golfing. It’s a list of things I need to take to the course. I put the list together because on different occasions I have forgotten, at least once, most of the items on it.

For example, one item is “14 clubs.” I left my putter at home once. Took it out of the bag to practice with and forgot to put it back in. I’ve left my sand wedge home. Same reason. Forgot a towel once. It’s pretty hard to hit a decent shot with dirt all over the clubface. Forgot my golf shoes several times. That wasn’t too critical, I got by with it. After a while I stopped looking at the list because I thought I had it all down. Big mistake.

I’ve been playing golf lately with my wife and sons on alternate Sundays. We go to an 18-hole executive course, bat the ball around, and have a great time together. My wife drives, I take a nap along the way, and we meet our boys there.

When we arrived at the course the last time we played, I got out of the car and walked back to the trunk to get my golf shoes. As I did, this terrible feeling came over me that I had left them at home. Sure enough, they weren’t there. The reason that I had a terrible feeling, and not just a feeling, is that the shoes I had on weren’t really shoes.

They were a pair of moccasins.

That would be OK, I thought. I could walk around the course if we didn’t go too fast. You see, I got the moccasins on sale and they were a size too big, so I can’t walk fast in them without walking right out of them. But I could manage.

So we all teed off on the first hole, which is on a hill about a hundred feet above the green. We walked down a gravel path to the ground below, and it hit me. It had been raining lately, and the ground was soaking wet. Not only that, it was early in the day and the grass was covered with dew.

I just thought if I walked carefully, my moccasins wouldn’t get too wet. Silly me.

By the eighth hole my socks were soaked through and by the twelfth the moccasins were entirely soaked. It was not comfortable. Did I mention it was less than 50 degrees out and my feet were kind of cold?

But in the midst of this travail, I found the cloud with the silver lining. Since I had no spikes on and was supported by wet socks inside wet shoes that were too big, and the ground was wet and slick, I couldn’t take my usual swipe at the ball. I had to swing . . . easy. Of course I had to, or I would have fallen down.

And you know what? Out of eighteen full swings I took that day, there were seventeen beautiful shots and one, just one, clinker. Seventeen shots that took off straight, high and with authority. Shots I might hit half the time on a good day, I was hitting every time. I had not hit the ball that well all year. All because of the easy swing which I had no choice but to make.

After the round I bought a new pair of socks from the pro shop and had a pleasant ride home with my feet jammed up against the heater vent. When we got home I put the moccasins out to dry. Mistake #2.

Wet leather shrinks when it dries out. I had forgotten this. I should have put some shoe trees in them. By Wednesday the moccasins were completely dry and one size smaller. But that’s OK, because remember how they were too big? Now they fit just right.

Somehow, even after pulling two real boners, I came out smelling like a rose. Just goes to show you. Someone up there must love me. Even so, I’m back to checking the list before I leave for the course.

The Fates forgive honest mistakes, but they don’t suffer fools, especially ones who don’t learn from the best golf swing lesson they ever had.

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

swing thoughts

No Swing Thoughts!

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Imagine your playing partner standing beside you as you’re addressing the ball, giving you all sorts of little reminders. Swing smoothly. Let your weight shift. Swing through the ball. Nice finish.

How long do you think you would put up with that? One time, tops. So why do you put up with that kind of chatter from yourself every time you swing?

The reminders like this that you give yourself as you’re about to swing, and especially during your swing, are just as destructive.

The reason you remind yourself to do something is that deep down you’re not sure you can do it. Or maybe you’re trying to use a swing thought to block out pressure you might be under at the moment. That’s negative thinking, and there’s no place for that on the golf course.

Swing thoughts also isolate one part of your swing from the rest of it, overemphasizing one aspect of a movement that is supposed to be a unified whole.

That will eventually throw everything else off, which is why swing thoughts only work for a hole or two.

When we’re awake, our conscious mind is in the foreground and will do anything it wants to. It wanders easily. We have to keep it under control when we play golf. We do that by accessing the subconscious mind. That part of our mind directs the conscious mind, but it can only do whatever we have put into it.

When we have a particular swing key that we’ve practiced over and over, so much that it’s fully embedded in our subconscious mind, we’ve taken the first step. The second step is to access what we’ve practiced from the subconscious mind in a way that the conscious mind can’t start getting ideas of its own. Here’s how.

Take your practice swing, with the reminders that you think are necessary, but to remind yourself of how you want the swing to feel.

Then step up to the ball and hit it right away, riding on that feeling. By starting right away, your conscious mind is captured in the feeling and doesn’t have the time to change to anything else.

In addition, concentrating on the feeling of the whole swing gives you something positive to think about, and something that unifies the entire movement you’re about to make.

Do not delay or run through the feeling several times to make sure. Any delay gives time for the feeling fade which gives your conscious mind free reign to start messing you up, and repetitions won’t make it more right.

When you go through this process this every time you swing a golf club, whether on the practice range or on the course, you’ll absorb it. It takes continual repetition over time to get it down, though. You have years of an old way in there. You have to put more of the new way in there, this way, for it to come out when you play.

We’re all looking for something we can rely on shot after shot, that one constant that will never let us down. You won’t find it in your physical technique. Pressure doesn’t affect your grip, for example. Pressure affects your mind.

That one constant you’re looking for has to be something you trust to keep your mind steady. Being guided by the feeling of the shot you’re about to hit is that constant. Learn it well.

rhythm and tempo

The Importance of Tempo in Golf

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The golf swing has many actions that all have to happen in the right sequence and need their own time to develop. The way for all that to occur is to swing with the right tempo.

Tempo is the measure of the overall speed of your swing, the elapsed time it takes to go from takeaway to impact.

Unless your tempo is the same from swing to swing, and is the right tempo for you, your technique, no matter how well you have learned it, will not be repeated consistently if your tempo is inconsistent from swing to swing or even during the swing. Parts of your swing will be rushed, some will be delayed, others might be skipped over entirely, all because you’re swinging at the wrong speed.

The tempo that suits you best is the one at which you hit the ball off the center of the clubface most frequently. This might be slower than you’re swinging now.

This tempo is not limited to your swing. Hit every shot with the same tempo, from drive to chip to putt. Using the same tempo for every shot builds in a constant that links up all your shots and has the effect that each shot reinforces the success of the others.

If you find your swing breaking down in the middle of a round, or any other shot not performing well, especially your putting, check your tempo. I would guess get it has gotten too fast. Slow it down to where it suits you, don’t speed it up going into the ball, and you should be fine again.

mental game

Golfers: Manage Your Mind, Manage Your Expectations

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I played a round a few weeks ago on a day that was going to be pretty hot, so my playing partner and I teed off at 7:00 a.m. We had the course to ourselves. The range hadn’t opened by the time we started, so a few practice swings to get ready, and away we went. We played fairly well for the first three holes; we were both relaxed and loose.

On the fourth hole, a 174-yard par 3, I put my tee shot just off the back of the green, twenty-five feet from the pin. Beautiful shot. I chipped to 18”. Tour-quality chip. I missed the putt. Nice par, down the drain. My partner was more disappointed than I was. Since I wasn’t too upset about it, he asked me how I handle missing a short putt like that. I said that I might or might not miss the next one that short, but stressing over this one guarantees that I will miss it. The best way to make sure it doesn’t happen again is to chalk it up as a bad shot, forget about it, and play on.

This kind of thinking can be applied anywhere. The same golfer who can hit a pin-seeking missile from 160 yards on one hole can yank it 20 yards left on the next. We expect to hit our best shots all the time, but we don’t. Touring professionals don’t. No amount of practice will let any golfer do that. Realize that you’re as good as your best shots and worst shots put together, and they all even out. I’ve never had a score, good or bad, that I didn’t deserve. If you can make peace with that fact, golf becomes much more enjoyable. And you’ll score better, too.

See more at www.bettergolfbook.com


golf swing

The Finish Position of the Golf Swing

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One spring morning I showed up at the course for a 9:30 a.m. tee time to find the first tee full of players. There had been a frost delay, so about eight foursomes ahead of us had yet to tee off. I hung around the first tee to watch everyone swing. This is what I saw. A clear majority of the players ended their swing with their weight firmly on their right foot, if not falling backward in that direction. You can imagine what their shots looked like.

How a golfer finishes the swing is a clear indicator of what went on before. It takes only a half second to get from impact to finish, in which time the golfer decelerates the clubhead from about 80-90 miles per hour to a full stop. The state of the swing at impact will thus directly influence the state of the finish position. When a good finish position is your goal, you will find yourself modifying your swing so you can get there, and the changes you make will be for the better.

Finish your swing standing comfortably upright, facing the target squarely, with your weight on your left foot, and your right foot balanced on the toe tip. You should be able to lift your right foot off the ground without disturbing your balance. Both hands will be to the left of your head and the club will be behind your head on a line that connects your ears. Your right shoulder should end up near your chin, but this depends in part on your flexibility.

Practice your finish by making shortened swings with your driver, no ball. Take the club halfway back and swing smoothly through to a full finish. When you get to the finish position, hold it there for a few seconds to let your mind absorb the process of your swing leading you into that position.*

The next time you watch a tournament on TV, watch where the players end up and how they get there. Or, if you have a chance to see a professional tournament in person, go to the range and watch the players warm up. In every case, the finishes you will see are graceful and balanced. That’s your model. There are things the pros do that we can’t, but this is not one of them. Build a good finish into your swing and watch the rest of your swing improve.

*Your finish position can subject your back to considerable twisting. I would recommend that hold your finish position infrequently as a check, and never routinely when practicing or playing. Always release yourself to a neutral upright position with your hands in front of you as you watch the ball, just like Phil does.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

putting

How To Sink Short Putts

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Short putts are the ones from four feet and under. They’re the ones you just have to sink and are so afraid of not sinking. So you miss. Is that you? That was me. Here’s how I solved the problem.

The hole is a negative space. We’re trying to hit the ball at something that isn’t there. How can you hit something that isn’t there? That doesn’t make sense to me. What does make sense is to hit the ball at something that is there. That gives our mind something positive to aim at, something much easier to hit.

Whenever I practice short putts, I put a water bottle in the hole, and practice hitting the bottle. It’s so simple it should be a crime. Really. You can’t miss. Instead of trying to ease a ball into a tiny opening in the ground, you’re aiming at the broad side of a barn and actually hitting it. There’s a real target to aim at, and that takes off all the pressure. Try it.

Best of all, you will never see the ball roll past an empty hole. Never. That implants a wonderful affirmation: “I never miss the hole.” Now your conscious mind might say, “That’s because you never hit at one!” but we don’t listen to that mind. We’re training the subconscious mind, which knows only black and white. If it never sees the ball miss the hole, it comes to believe, “I never miss.”

After you’ve practiced this way for long enough, the image of an object sticking out of the hole sticks with you. When you’re playing, even though you’re looking at an empty hole, you see the bottle sticking up out of it. In your mind, the task becomes, hit the bottle. If you do, since there’s really no bottle there, the ball goes in the hole. Simple.

If the short ones give you fits, if you’d rather putt from six feet than two, try putting at a bottle on the practice green for a few sessions. Warm up this way before you play, too. It will change everything.

health

Your Golfer’s Back

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Everyone who plays golf is an athlete. Golfers make movements specific to the game which have little to do with how they move in daily life. Part of learning to play golf is learning how to make those movements to play effectively. The other part is learning to how to make those movements to avoid injury.

Golf injuries of the lower back have been extensively studied. The lower back is stressed most in making a swift and violent turn into the ball on the downswing. Current swing theory directs that the difference between the hip turn and shoulder turn on the backswing. The greater the difference, the more the lower back is loaded with unnatural pressure. The inconsistent swing which is characteristic of recreational golfers can cause a sudden, unexpected, and excessive load to be applied to the lower back. A lack of physical fitness leaves the body unable to resist these stresses which leaves the body open to injury.

My lower back is in terrible shape, yet I have played pain-free golf for years. This is how I do it. Please consider these ideas for yourself, regardless of the state of your back.

The foundation of my full swing is tempo. Tempo is the speed at which the hips turn. It must be the same swinging back and swinging down. When the tempo of the hip turn stays constant, not only do you hit the ball better, but you prevent sudden stresses from being applied.

I take my stance by bending from my hips, not from my waist. Bending from your waist throws weight onto the lower back.

On the backswing, I turn my hips so the maximum difference between my hip turn and shoulder turn is about 20 degrees. (Professional golfers have a difference of 45 degrees or more.)

My swing itself is led by a full body turn and powered by holding on to my wrist set until the momentum of the downswing naturally releases the clubhead into the ball. I see so many recreational players lurch into the ball as a way of hitting hard, that I wonder just when the shoe is going to drop, if it hasn’t already.

Your finish position can subject your back to considerable twisting. I would recommend that hold your finish position infrequently as a check, and never routinely when practicing or playing. Always release yourself to a neutral upright position with your hands in front of you as you watch the ball, just like Phil does.

In addition, you can do these things to protect your back.

Warm up carefully. Stretch and turn lightly and gently before you even pick up a club. Begin to swing by taking a driver and making long, slow, and I mean slow, swings, to gradually warm up your turning muscles.

Start going through your bucket by hitting a few pitches with a half swing. Work your way through the bag from your short clubs up to your driver.

During the round, stretch out every four holes or so. You make a full swing only every few minutes and you can stiffen up before the round is over.

Walk around the course with your clubs on a pull cart. Carrying your clubs compresses the spine. Riding in a cart can subject your spine to impact stresses when the cart goes over bumps.

Golf is our recreation, not our livelihood. Play it so it introduces joy into your life instead of pain.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

Little Differences That Make a Big Difference in How Well You Play