shot-making

Why you should switch from a draw to a fade

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To hit more fairways and more greens, play a reliable fade. It’s an easy shot to hit, an easy one to repeat. Isn’t that what we all want in golf? Something that works which we can do time after time?

Many instructors say recreational golfers should learn to hit a draw. What they really want you to learn is an anti-slice swing, that gets you a little more distance to boot. Sounds good.

But you don’t slice. You hit a draw that turns nasty without warning and it’s making you crazy.

The clubface is closing at impact when you hit a draw, and moving in the same counter-clockwise direction as the clubhead. The swing naturally encourages you to close the clubface, but when these two factors compound each other, bad things happen.

Set up with your clubface open just one or two degrees, and aim left. Take the club back slightly outside. Swing down at the ball slightly from the outside, rather than coming in low from the inside. Your drawing habits won’t let you actually come down from the outside, but rather from straight behind the ball with the clubface that bit open.

Hold off your release a touch through impact, and you’ve got it. The ball will get off the ground nicely, curve gently to the right and land softly. You’re now hitting a marvelous control shot. Believe me, to make fairways and greens your game, this is the shot.

This swing makes sense with your longer clubs, but from the 7-iron on down, you don’t really need to make these adjustments.

Several things accompany a fade. I would imagine, if you play a draw, that you hit fat more often than you want to, because the clubhead comes into the ball from a relatively low angle. Even if you don’t take up turf, the ball first, ground second kind of contact is hard to achieve. With this fade swing, it’s as simple as putting the club on the ball, since the clubhead trajectory is steeper.

Second, your swing will be easier to make. It’s literally, turn, turn. There are no complicated swing mechanics involved. You can use this swing for hitting your driver, a 70-yard pitch, and everything in between — the same swing. That really simplifies your shot-making.

Finally, if you have back problems, this swing might be one to look into since the finish is very upright. You don’t have to twist your lower back through impact, or be all kinked up at the finish. A fade swing lets you stand tall and straight all the way through.

What might seem like a drawback is that you won’t be releasing the club as strongly as before, which, in combination with higher ball flight, means you will lose a bit of distance. It shouldn’t be more than half a club, though. Given the revolution in accuracy in your shot-making, this is more than a fair trade.

If you want to change your game from a hard 85 to an easy 80 (or less!), play with a fade. Once you learn how to hit it, it’s hard to stop putting one ball after another out there where you want it to go.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

practice

What I learned at the range – 8

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Today has to do with putting.

1. To acquire the feel for the length of the stroke needed to hit an approach putt, and thus the speed, I set up behind the ball looking directly at the hole. I then take a practice stroke that I know would send the ball ten feet. I take another stroke that would send the ball halfway to the hole from there, and another that would get the ball all the way to the hole.

By sneaking up on the actual stroke in this way, proceeding in identifiable steps, I get a very good idea for how long to make the actual stroke because it is built on the foundation of knowledge that I gained using the practice procedure #3, below.

2. To make short putts, that is, putts of under eight feet, you must feel the speed, find the line, in that order, and step up to the ball aligned in your stance to the staring line of the putt.

Now for the critical part. You must forget about the hole entirely and hit a straight putt of a given distance, just as if you were putting on your living room carpet. The existence of the hole beside you must vanish from your awareness. All that must be on your mind is the physical act of making that straight putt. If you do just that, you have set yourself up so the green will do the rest.

Do not try to do the job of the green once you have found it.

3. Here’s a distance drill for you. Line up four balls and hit each one six feet, without looking where they go. You do this by closing your left eye and keeping it closed until you have putted all four balls. Line up four more and do it again. Repeat the drill to distances of nine feet and twelve feet.

You don’t look at where the balls ended up until you are finished, to prevent you from subtly adjusting your stroke. The purpose of this drill is to memorize what a stroke that hits the ball these distances feels like.

You may do the drill another day to fifteen, eighteen, and twenty-one feet.

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short game

Short game pre-shot routine

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The right pre-shot routine in the short game maximizes the effectiveness of your shot. Here is a routine proposed by Paul Runyan, who is in the top five all-time of short game players. It’s taken from this book, The Short Way to Lower Scoring.

1. Check the lie. A successful shot depends on making solid contact with the ball. That is determined to a great extent by the lie. When the ball sits up on a lush cushion of grass, you can play with a level stroke. But lies with little grass under the ball, or a ball sitting down in lush grass, require you to pinch the ball — play it back of center and hit down more than level.

2. Visualize your shot. Consider where you want the ball to land and thus how much it will run out to the hole. The safest shots have minimum air time and maximum ground time. Under the right conditions, the ball does not have to land on the green before it starts its run-out. Runyan prefers maximum time on the ground, and so do I.

3. Choose the right club. From your chipping practice, you know how much the ball will run out relative to its flight when hit with every club from your 6-iron to your lob wedge. As for pitches, you know, again from your practice, how far your pitching clubs, 8-iron through lob wedge, will travel with the same stroke. When you have to pinch the ball, take out a more lofted club to make sure you get the club under the ball.

4. Rehearse the stroke. Make at least two rehearsal strokes. We can get away with less-than-perfect contact in our full shots, but in short shots, only perfection will do. Your practice swings both remind you of how you want to hit the ball, and set you up for the next step.

5. Duplicate your rehearsal stroke. When you hit the shot, you should have only this thought in your mind, to do the same thing that you just did. Trust your preparation and execute the shot with confidence.

To Runyan’s five points I would add:

3a. Line up the shot. Especially for chipping, where the ball will be running to the hole, regard the shot as an approach putt that might go in. Line up the shot to give it a chance, and if it doesn’t go in, you have only a short putt left. For longer pitches, there is no reason to leave the ball more than a few yards right or left of the hole.

4a. Believe in your stroke. If there is uncertainty of any flavor in your mind as you’re about to take the club away, stop and walk away. Choose another shot, one you can believe in, even though it might not leave the ball as close to the hole as you would like.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

commentary

2013 U.S. Open preview

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The past few years I have written a U.S. Open preview about the course, the field, and all the usual things you want to read about in a preview, looking for some nugget of information or point of view that no one else has.

This year I want to do something different. It’s because so much is being made of whether Merion East is obsolete as a championship course, with the USGA trying to let us know that it isn’t.

This year is the 100th anniversary of Francis Ouimet’s victory over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, the American kid beating the two English titans and putting American golf in the map. It was the equivalent of the (very) local phenom beating Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in an 18-hole playoff, and beating them decisively.

The problem is, Ouimet won that Open not here, but at The Country Club in Boston, a course that truly is no longer suitable for championship play. But why here, is the puzzle.

East Merion: so small, so short. The 2007 U.S. Amateur was held here as a test to see if modern hitters would overpower the course or whether it would hold its own. East Merion passed the test, and the green light was on for another Open.

The course is historical, but it belongs to another time. The power game that is played now will not be evident. Last year there was so much fuss about Olympic, which was long enough, but so demanding off the tee that the driver would be taken out of play.

East Merion is the same. The winner will have to play a precise round of golf four days in a row, and that hardly suggests we’ll see many drivers. That shouldn’t happen in the U.S. Open.

This tournament is the toughest test of every club in the bag, every shot you have. To make arguably the most important club in the bag irrelevant goes dead against that concept.

The course is so short that longer hitters on the LPGA circuit could compete. Why none of them tried to qualify, I’ll never know.

The USGA is trying so hard to preserve golf as it was that they don’t see golf as it is: an evolving game that deserves to move away from its past while still paying homage to it.

All this is not to say the the pros will have a field day this week. USGA greenskeepers could set up your local layout and protect par against a top PGA field.

Golfers come and go. There’s no more Ben Hogan. Arnold Palmer doesn’t play in the Open any more, neither does Jack Nicklaus. We regret their passing while realizing that this is part of life moving on.

There comes a time when history must be regarded as history, when we just have to let go. New golfers playing a different game deserve new courses that showcase that game. Older courses, built for older styles of golf, should be allowed to retire and be appreciated by the recreational golfers for whom they are still suitable.

I love this course, and I wish it well this week. But after that, let’s start building new courses worthy of determining golf’s champion, and hold the competition at those places. See you in two years at Chambers Bay.

driver

Should you be hitting a driver?

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Short and sweet today.

Go to the range and hit four 8-irons. Did you get similar-looking shots? They all had nice ball flight, and went where you were aimed? Didn’t hit any of them fat?

Good. We’ll call those shots Pretty Much the Same.

On to part two.

Hit four drivers. Did they all go Pretty Much the Same like your 8-iron shots did? Even two of them? No?

If not, if every one of them was different, then you shouldn’t be hitting your driver.

Start with your 9-iron and work your way through your bag, one club at a time, hitting four balls with each club. The longest club with which you can hit three out of four shots Pretty Much the Same (and straight) is the longest club you should be using off the tee.

End of lesson.

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mental game

Losing strokes needlessly – a practical example

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You can save at least three strokes per side without even hitting the ball. Here is how I lost four in eleven holes yesterday.

I’m still playing abbreviated rounds while I recover from my two back surgeries of a year ago. My gas tank isn’t very big yet. So yesterday I went out with two friends, and played 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 17, and 18. The course we played is laid out so it is easy to take breaks at these points.

On the first hole, I had an easy chip for my par and left it way short. I just got too careful instead of hitting the chip like I do in practice a 100 times each week. 1.

On the second hole, I got shy again, and left a made-to-order 90-yard chip 15 yards short and in a bunker. 2.

On the eighth hole I hooked my drive into a bad lie. Instead of hitting out with an 8-iron to take my bogey, I tried for the whole show with my 4-hybrid. One bad stroke led to another. 3.

On the tenth hole, I mis-aligned my drive and hit it way right. I misaligned my pitch into the green and hit it way left. I scored the Trifecta by getting shy (again!) with a garden-variety chip. 4.

Four shots lost that had nothing to do with ball-striking and everything to do with not using my head. I was six over for those eleven holes and could have been only two over without breaking a sweat.

Believe me, I will make the most of these object lessons.

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playing the game

Four guaranteed stroke savers

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Recreational golfers will shoot lower scores by not taking extra strokes, more than by hitting better shots. There is a big difference.

Extra strokes are one ones you take because you didn’t think things through clearly, and as a result, play a shot that doesn’t get you anywhere. You’re no better off than before, but you’ve rung up one more stroke on your score.

Play shots you know you can hit. You might have seen something on TV that you would like to try, and here is a great place to do it. Or you have tried this shot once or twice in practice so you think, “I’ll try it here.” Then you hit it, and it doesn’t work, and now you get to try something else.

Hit a shot you know you can hit, even if it’s not the ideal shot. That way you’ll get something out of it, instead of nothing. Remember what that set-up was, so you can practice after the round to learn what you should have done, preparing yourself for the next time.

But don’t hit shots that are complete strangers.

Respect your lie. Which brings up this point. A subtle difference in your lie can mean you have to hit a different shot. Maybe around the green you have a chip shot that is pure gold, but if the lie isn’t conducive, don’t hit it. The result could be worse than a compromise shot.

I have this chip that sends the ball right at the pin, bounces twice, and stops. But I have to take the club back very low and keep it low coming into the ball. If the lie is any bit cuppy, so the ball is sitting down, this shot will blade the ball over the green.

So I have to pick another shot, as you should if you don’t think you can get the club on the ball the way you would like to.

Uneven lies crop up all the time, but they’re easy to master.

Don’t get greedy. Take what the course gives you and no more. Say the tees are up one day, and you can bend your drive around the dogleg for once. But there’s a wind in your face which will cancel out the distance advantage. If you try anyway, your ball will likely go into whatever is in the corner and you’ll have to spend a stroke getting out to the spot you would have driven to if you hadn’t been greedy.

What course designers want us to do is get greedy and not do the next item on the list.

Respect trouble. Play away from trouble. Play around trouble. Don’t play over it or nearby it. The course designer will give you an out. You just have to find it.

With water, especially, be careful. Never play over water unless you have to. If you have to, set up your shot so you have a wide berth if you miss. You can lay up so you don’t hit in, and still have plenty of room to clear the hazard with your next shot.

Forced carry off the tee that you can’t quite cover? Use your tee shot to chip down the tee box to a spot from where you can get over. Use up one stroke to save two. (And maybe consider you’re playing from the wrong set of tees.)

Much of the fun of golf is that it is a thinking man’s game. A thinking woman’s game, too. When you play it like that, you shoot lower scores without being one whit better at hitting the ball. Now how good is that?

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mental game

Consistency in golf’s mental game

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Until you have learned to control your mind in a positive way, your golf will be characterized by untapped potential.

A few weeks ago, I put up a guest post about building consistency into your game. That post addressed your technical skills.

What I want to say today is, your mental game needs to be just as consistent, and you need to practice it just as much, and in the same way. Please read that earlier post before you continue this one, if you haven’t already.

I would guess that if you wrote down the shots that didn’t turn out well in the last round you played, that the cause was most often a mental lapse of some sort. Your mind was distracted, you were worried about something, over-analyzing the situation, forgetting to consider some variables, and so on.

The point is that you haven’t yet built up positive mental habits. A habit is something that you do reflexively, without thinking; you just do it.

All the time you spend at the range is meant to build up positive technical habits, so when you play a stroke, proper technique comes out automatically.

There are, unfortunately, no “mind ranges” where you can practice the mental skill of consistently staying focused so you observe everything, make good decisions, and execute the shot with confidence.

My new book, The Golfing Self, shows you how to build up a focused mind and how to make that focus habitual.

I wrote this book because I want you to play better. Buy it, read it, apply it, and you will.

It will change everything about the way you play.

shot-making

What I learned at the range – 7

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1. I have this problem with hooking the ball off the tee. Not the classic draw that all the pros say recreational players should learn how to hit.

It’s more like a hook that looks like it’s turning down even as it’s rising off the ground, if it even gets that high. Low left, aim at the right edge of the fairway and hope it doesn’t run out into the rough on the other side.

All in all, a useless shot, and I’ve had enough. If this shot is yours, too, pay attention.

I teed the ball lower, aimed a bit left, squared the clubface to my aim line, and took the club back a bit outside. I brought it into the ball a bit outside, too. Not a lot, a bit. It doesn’t take much of a change in impact geometry to make a big difference.

The result is a shot that takes off along the aim line, gets good elevation, turns a bit to the right and stays in the fairway. Love that last bit.

And it stayed in, shot after shot. Try this if low, running hooks with your driver are making you crazy.

2. They say “14 clubs, one swing.” (Well, maybe not your putter.) I don’t agree. The swing I described to you above works with my hybrid irons, too, but not with my irons, especially my short irons.

The swing I find more productive with those clubs is my standard swing, which brings the clubhead into the ball low and on line. I can keep the clubface square with my irons more easily than with the longer clubs, so it all works out.

That means I have two swings, one for the big-headed clubs, and another for the small-headed clubs.

3. Want to know how to hit that wedge shot that flies low into the green, bites once, and stops? It’s easy.

Hit it with a sand wedge by taking the clubhead back very low and letting the wrists hinge. As the clubhead comes back into the ball, let the wrists hinge back to where they were at address as you meet the ball, but at that point arrest the hinging. Keep the back of the left hand in a straight line with the left arm as you follow through.

Important! Keep the clubhead very low in the follow-through, and keep the clubface aimed at your target. Do not let it rotate over.

All this will put lots of spin on the ball. It will hit and stop within a few feet of where it lands.

Use this shot if you have to chip from, say, twenty yards to a pin in front with no room for roll-out. You get that a lot, and if you can hit this shot, you’ll get up and down at last.

commentary

Anchoring ban forces PGA players to examine options

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Several PGA Tour players are “exploring their options” regarding the recent ban by the USGA on the anchored putting stroke.

A group of nine players has retained Henry L. Manion III of the law firm of Cooley Manion Jones. The group includes Tim Clark, Carl Petterson, and Adam Scott.

On the one hand, courts are reluctant to say that the governing body of a sport cannot make its own rules. On the other hand, if this rule prevents a player from pursuing his livelihood, a case could be made for eliminating the rule.

The rule, 14-1b, which is not based on any evidenced competitive advantage, but on cosmetics and an odd conception of golf’s traditions, takes effect in 2016.

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