It has been since January 2022 that I posted an updated version of my updatable golf book. I have spent the interval developing the swing principles contained in A Basic Golf Swing to arrive at what I really want to say.
BLGB is a comprehensive golf instruction book that helps you to score better in two ways: hitting better shots, and avoiding bad ones.
Play well, and have fun.
I put up three posts in the earlier years of this blog on how to choose the right set of tees. The posts were all too long and took too much time to get to the point.
Add your average driver distance (carry plus roll) to your average 7-iron distance (carry only) and multiply by 16.
The end.
A question many golfers as themselves is, why is a six-foot par putt (say) easier to sink than a six-foot birdie putt?
There has even been some research done on the question.
This what I think, and it’s kind of an easy answer.
You probably have lots more six-foot putts for par than for birdie. You know if you miss this one, another opportunity will come later in the round and you’ll probably sink it.
A six-foot birdie put, on the other hand, comes around maybe once every three rounds or so for most of us. We don’t get a chance like this very often and we have to make advantage of it when it comes up. And that is the problem right there.
I remember a round I played on a course that has fiendish 17th hole. Par 4, somewhat longish, with a bunker on the left guarding the entrance to the green. Even hitting the green with your second is hard to do.
The pin was in the back left. I hit a hybrid which drew perfectly and ended up eight feet past the hole.
Getting a birdie here would be a feather in my cap and I knew I would never have another chance like this again.
Of course, I missed the putt.
The urgency to get an unexpected birdie putt into the hole takes us out of our usual process, our usual mental approach to the putt.
Instead of knowing what we are doing, and being as comfortable with it as if it were a par putt, we are really uncomfortable because there is so much at stake. We are mentally adrift.
We start hoping the ball into the hole instead of hitting it in. And that’s the difference.
Think this, regardless: If the ball goes in, it goes in. If it doesn’t go in, it doesn’t. There’s nothing more to it.
Now if it were an eagle putt…
Jack Nicklaus was quoted in GolfWRX today about what he thinks are the six most important shots at Augusta. These are the ones you really have to pay attention to and know how to hit. Not to mention the catty remark about the rest of the course.
“Everybody knows Augusta pretty much, there’s [sic] about six shots at Augusta that you better pay attention to.
“Your tee shot at two, your second shot at 11, tee shot at 12, your tee shot at 13 and the second shot at 13, and the second shot at 15.
“I don’t think 16 – that doesn’t bother me, I don’t think I’ve ever hit it in the water there.
“So those six shots, if you play those shots smart, play them intelligently, and put them in the conservative side of the ledger, the rest of the golf course is not very hard.”
Elsewhere, one of the old guard is worried about the camaraderie or lack of it at this year’s Past Champions dinner. We know Greg Norman won’t be there, so it should go just fine.
The only thing I think of that could go wrong is that there would be nothing on the menu that noted rural Florida epicure Bubba Watson is willing to eat. Fix him a bowl of Cheerios.
Winner: John Rahm (-12) over both Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka at (-8)
Just in case you just arrived from another planet, let me tell you that it’s Masters week again.
Will Scottie defend? Will Rory complete the career Slam? Will a LIV golfer win? Will Jim Nantz take sappiness new heights? (“And that will live on as a putt for the ages” “Jim, it was just a one-footer for a bogey.”)
Will Tiger make the cut, and if he does, will he be granted the use of a cart to finish the final two rounds because after the first two he can barely walk?
Answers: No, no, no, yes, yes, and no but yes.
How can you not watch?
Oh, yes. Here’s the recently revealed real story of why Gary McCord got bounced from the Masters announcing team.
Gosh, I love this tournament. So do lots of other people.
The Masters seems to be a religious experience for so many golf fans. I really don’t know why that is, though I can guess.
Of all the majors championships, this is the only one played on the same course year after year. As such, it has become so familiar that I’ll bet you can close your eye and think “6” and an accurate image of the sixth hole comes immediately to mind. Same for all the other holes. Could you do that for TPC Sawgrass, which you have also seen every year for years?
And, it is no doubt the most beautiful course we see on TV all year. These things make it special.
It does have tradition, created by its ties to Bobby Jones.
All of this makes many people put it at number 1 in the ranking of the four majors.
(As for the beauty thing, though, here’s a photograph of Augusta National in the summer.)
But is it the greatest major? Well… It’s not the championship of anything, but rather a high-class invitational. It has the smallest and some observers would say the weakest field.
Two former champions with nine Masters titles between them offered a different opinion last week, though. Both Jack Nickluas and Gary Player rank it fourth among the four modern majors.
Nicklaus because “it’s not meant to be ahead of those others” and “I’d put the Masters No. 1 as far to play in and enjoy doing that kind of stuff. But as far as importance of the game, and being American, the U.S. Open is No. 1.”
Player said, “It’s the youngest of the majors. The others are steeped in tradition and history… . Nothing comes to the top without time.”
And then Player said, “If it wasn’t [sic] for the players, [Augusta] would just be another golf course in Georgia.”
Them’s fightin’ words, Gary.
The course membership, desperately trying to keep its course relevant, has Augusta National playing to 7,545 yards this year. The major change is the 13th hole, which was lengthened by 35 yards from last year thanks to the purchase of land several years ago from the neighboring Augusta Country Club.
It got to be so that if you didn’t get a 4 on this hole you had lost a stroke to the field. This year, a 5 will be a good score, and you might see more than a few 7’s.
Here are the current hole yardages compared to the original 1933 yardages.
Front:
1933: 400-525-350-190-435-180-340-500-420
2023: 445-575-350-240-495-180-450-570-460
Back:
1933: 430-415-150-480-425-485-145-400-420 — 6,690
2023: 495-520-155-545-440-550-170-440-465 — 7,545
Now here’s a real treat for you. In 1959, Sports Illustrated published an article by Bobby Jones on the golf course. Following about a 1,000-word essay on the course, each hole is presented with an attractive schematic drawing and Jones’s description of how the hole should be played.
You will read how Augusta was designed to be played, until it had to be defended from the modern long ball beginning with Tiger Woods over twenty years ago.
How to find that article in just a moment.
Where’s what it says about the thirteenth, then playing at 475 yards:
“We call 13 a par 5 because under certain conditions of wind and ground few players will risk trying for the green with a second shot. In my opinion this 13th hole is one of the finest holes for competitive play I have ever seen. The player is first tempted to dare the creek on his tee shot by playing in close to the corner, because if he attains this position he not only shortened the hole but obtained a more level lie for this second shot. Driving out to the right not only increases the length of the second but encounters an annoying sidehill lie.
“Whatever position may be reached with the tee shot, the second shot as well entails a momentous decision whether or not to try for the green. With the pin far back on the right, under normal weather conditions this is a very good eagle hole, because the contours of the green tend to run the second shot close. The danger is that the ball will follow the creek, and the most difficult pin locations are along this creek in the forward part of the green.
“Several tournaments have been won or lost here, even though the decision may not have been obvious at the time.”
We’ll see if the added yardage makes that much of a difference.
Update: It did. Lots of players laid up with their second shot to pitch on with their third.
To get to the article from the linked page, click the GALLERY button on the lower left and scroll using the arrow button on the right until you get to page 44 of 104 (extreme lower left).
Please have fun with this 54-year-old magazine. Other highlights are:
Jimmy Jemail’s HOT BOX on page 8.
The Triumph TR-3 advertisement on page 14 (only $2675).
Page 56 shows a picture of Ted Williams and rookie Pumpsie Green, the first Black player for the Boston Red Sox, the last team the major leagues to integrate.
Chapter 2 of Tommy Armour’s new book, “A Round of Golf With Tommy Armour” starts on page 79.
And articles on horse racing, yachting, bridge, and trout fishing. SI was a very upper-class East Coast magazine back then.
The Masters was a different tournament back then, too.
“The average golfer’s problem is not so much a lack of ability as it is a lack of knowing what he should do.”
Five Lessons, Ben Hogan, p. 97
“To improve your golf the first stage is not necessarily to change your swing, but to learn to do your best swing more often.”
The Golf Handbook for Women, Vivien Saunders, p. 92
“It is true that if you cannot putt you cannot win, for no hole is won until the ball is down—but good scores are only made possible by good play up to the green.”
On Learning Golf, Percy Boomer, p. 221
“I can outhit many men, much to their embarrassment, for suddenly they are pitting…their strength against mine. That’s foolish. They aren’t competing with my strength; they’re competing with the efficiency of my swing.”
Play Golf the Wright Way, Mickey Wright, p. 33
“The average golfer’s chances of developing good judgement are better than his chances of radically transforming his golf swing.”
The Elements of Scoring, Raymond Floyd, p. 73
“Check out the country club scene and you’ll find that the guys beating everyone’s brains out are mostly the players who happily drive 225 to 230 yards down the middle, knock it on the green more often than not with ample club and well-controlled swings, and, when they don’t, own sharp enough short games to get up and down two of three times.”
My Golden Lessons, Jack Nicklaus, p. 166
“The shortest route to improvement is to get on the green in fewer strokes.”
Hale Irwin, Golf Digest, January 2010, p. 98.
And two from The Recreational golfer:
“The one feeling you should have before every shot is athletic confidence in your ability to hit the shot well. If you’re not feeling that, well, good luck.”
“Play a practice round where any shot can be repeated, but only once. If your mulligan is more like it, your mind wasn’t ready the first time. Work on that. If the mulligan is just as bad, this to a shot you need to practice.”
Once again, I come to you with yet another way for you to accomplish this vital fundamental in spite of your impulsive desires not to. Hopefully this will be the easiest method of all because you don’t have to do anything. You just have to not do two things, which unfortunately, are very tempting to do.
At the top of the backswing, there is an angle between the left forearm (right forearm for lefties) and the clubshaft. The first thing not to do is release that angle at the moment you reverse the direction of your swing. By retaining it for just a split second at the very start, you will lock in that angle so that the momentum of your swing releases it naturally and at the right time. Easy!
As you come into the ball, however, there is still a chance for you to screw it up if you absolutely have to by adding a little bit of hit or steerage with your right hand (left hand for you lefties) just before contact, which throws the clubhead ahead of your hands, the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. The second thing not to do, then, is that.
Believe me this is as simple as I can make it. I can’t foresee a The Hands Lead the Clubhead – VII post. But you never know.
To draw the ball off the tee is the ideal shot for a recreational golfer. It looks great, and it gives you extra distance on the ground. The trouble is, it’s a hard shot to hit, for reasons there is no point going into now. I’d rather spend my time describing an easy way to hit one.
The title of this post sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Everybody knows you have to close your clubface to hit a draw, and that is exactly right.
But it’s closed in relation to what?
The club PATH, that’s what. That’s the geometry that gets you your draw. And here’s how to get it with an OPEN clubface.
Set up parallel to a line going from the ball to the target as if you were going to hit a shot straight at it.
Open the clubface about three degrees.
Here comes the magic trick: swing toward the ball from inside-to-out by about six degrees. Now your clubface, open to your stance line, is CLOSED to the swing path, and there’s your draw.
If you look at the diagram carefully, you will see (if you tilt your head a bit) that even though the clubface is open to the target line, it is slightly closed to the swing path. Hence, a draw.
To get an in-to-out swing path of about six degrees, you have to aim your swing.
Take your stance aimed at your target.
Facing your target, put your left arm out in front of you, palm down, with the outside edge of the hand against your target in the distance. The inside edge of your hand is about six degrees away. Aim your swing for whatever is grazing the right edge of your hand. Forget about the target. Aim at that place or object.
Then aim your clubface at half that distance to the right. Now it is open to your stance, but closed to your projected swing path.
This shot takes practice. To swing in-to-out, it helps greatly to take the club back in-to-out as well. This is something have to learn how to do. You also have to learn what angles of clubface and swing path work for you. The ones I mentioned above are just for mentioning.
Another place you can use this shot is to get out of trouble from the left side of the fairway.
I once was off the fairway in a bunch of trees with no straight shot to the pin, but I had an open look at the fairway. So I played this shot, but really exaggerated the angles. I opened the clubface about ten degrees and swung from about twenty degrees inside. (Don’t worry, I had practiced this shot, too.)
The ball took off way right then took a hard left turn towards the green and ended up just off the left side of the green. But I got my up and down.
A long time ago I wrote a lot about swing thoughts. My point was and still is that they do not help you during your swing and that they actually harm you.
But lately I have come to realize that there is a place for them, which is when you practice your swing in slow motion, very slow motion, and without hitting golf balls.
When you practice your swing you want to do it in slow motion because you can feel everything that happens. If you know what it is you want to do, you can feel very clearly if you did it or not.
Your errors and successes stand much more than when you swing at a normal speed.
Also, you have the time to introduce positive swing thoughts. A slow motion swing proceeds slowly enough that these thoughts do the job of coaching you as your swing moves along without interfering with it, and actually help you hit all the right marks.
Eventually you want your swing to be automatic so that everything that is supposed to happen is what happens without your having to pay attention to any of it, just as you never pay attention when you use a knife and fork at the dinner table. You just use them.
To build that unconscious knowledge of your swing, practice it slowly with conscious coaching via slow-motion swings. That’s how it’s done.
You might have seen this chart before, but I’m posting it just in case you haven’t. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
The boldface numbers across the top are swing speeds in miles per hour.
As always, you may click to enlarge.
