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A Winter Improvement Program – Setup

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The rain has come and it won’t let up until March, if that. Time for the Winter Tune-up.

What I want to do in the next few weeks is go over a things you could do to improve your golf for the 2013 season. We all say we want to do that. We play around with a few things we read in the golf magazines, and before we know it, it’s time for the new season and we haven’t made the progress we intended.

So, I’m going to lay it all out for you. What to do, and in this order. Every Thursday, you’ll get something new to do and a week to practice it. Hopefully, by the time the series ends, you have built a number of improvements into your game. Let’s get started with the setup.

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If you were going to hang a door, you would ensure that the frame is square, the door is the right size, the hinges are on straight, and that the latch lines up with the strike plate. Any one thing that isn’t quite right and you’ll have a door you have to wrestle with every time you open or close it.

Your golf swing is the same way. When your setup is right, your swing naturally falls out of it. When something is wrong, your body gets carried off in directions that make hitting the ball harder to do well or in the same way consistently.

One of the things I will be doing from time to time in this series is suggesting you get a lesson. There are times you can’t learn from reading what it is you’re supposed to do, and get it right. Now is one of those times.

Sign up for a lesson in the setup: grip, stance, posture, aim. I’m not kidding. Get a lesson for just this. It can take a full half hour, and it is a lot of stuff. You might want to bring a notebook to write down the important points.

When you get home, practice your grip, stance, and posture in a full-length mirror, looking at yourself face-on and down the line. You can buy a mirror on a stand for less than a round of golf.

Take your grip and set up to a ball, step by step, 30 times a day, starting over completely every time — let go of the club, walk away from the ball and start over. If you’re learning new habits, you have to repeat them. Knowing what to do isn’t enough.

Practice your aim on the practice tee, since you really need to have a distant target to aim at. This bit is more important than you know. Any pro will tell you the number one cause of bad shots is poor aim.

None of this is very sexy, and practicing it can get kind of boring. There are, however, so many ways you can ruin a shot before you’ve even moved the club. Eliminate those ways and then you can worry about your swing. Accomplished musicians practice their scales. Golfers practice their setup. Enough said.

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When Do You Need a Golf Lesson?

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Long-time readers of this column know that I am not shy about taking golf lessons or about suggesting that you get them, too. You can learn things in a half hour that would take months to learn on your own, and find out things you never dreamed of.

What you shouldn’t do is take a lesson just to have one. There needs to be a purpose, a well-defined problem that needs solving. Here are a few good reasons for taking a lesson.

1. You’re just taking up the game. After you’ve played a few rounds and decided that golf is something you want to pursue, get lessons to learn how to play it the right way. Learn the right way from the beginning. The habits you acquire at the start will follow you through your golfing career. Make sure they’re the right ones.

2. Three bad rounds in a row. Harvey Penick said to forget about one bad round, go practice if you follow it with another one, and see a pro if you follow those two with a third. It’s likely you’ve fallen into a bad habit that will be simple to correct, but it’s likely, too, that you’ll never find it without help.

3. To learn a new shot. Odds are that once a round, at least, you will be in a situation that calls for a shot you don’t know how to hit. So, do the best you can and remember what that situation was. When you get a collection of three or four of those, go to a pro and find out how to hit them.

4. To learn an old shot the right way. You can probably hit the ball onto the green from 75 yards, for example, just fine. Get a lesson on this shot like you’ve never hit it before. Learn it from scratch. You’ll be amazed at how much better you hit it. Really.

5. Periodic maintenance. You take your car in for periodic maintenance every so often, you have a dental check-up twice a year. Why not do the same for your golf swing? Once your pro learns your golf swing, he can spot little things that show you’re drifting away from what works and correct them before you start leaking oil (or getting cavities). Don’t neglect your putting, either.

6. To get to the next level. In a recent post, I mentioned that the first step to playing better is not to improve your swing, but to use your best swing more often. That swing, however, will take you only so far. To improve beyond that point, the second step is to get a new conception of the golf swing. The pro will show you. Plan on doing a year of hard work and putting up with a lot of bad shots until the changes take hold. Then go out and enjoy the brand new game you’re playing.

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Golf in the Rain

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Last week I wrote about the joys of autumn golf in the warm late afternoon sun. Autumn golf also features the cold afternoon rain.

Now if it’s raining and cold, I don’t go out. Someone once said to me that because I don’t like to play when I’m cold or wet that I’m not a True Golfer . . . whatever that means.

But sometimes you just have to go out and it isn’t raining, but it might rain. So here’s what we do in the Pacific Northwest, the rain capital of the western world.

Bring along your rain jacket and rain pants. If you use a golf glove, bring extras. They get soaked quickly and won’t dry out.

Bring four towels. One is to clean your clubs with. The other three are to dry your hands before you take your grip. Bring three because one will be wet before you make the turn. The second one will be wet halfway through the back nine.

Make sure you have the club cover that came with your bag. When it starts raining, we cover our clubs first and put on our rain suit second.

Did you pack an umbrella, by the way?

Bring along an extra pair of socks and shoes to change into when the round is over. There’s nothing like having dry feet on the way home.

Now for playing in the rain.

The ball will sit quickly when it hits the green, so you can be more aggressive that usual. Your approach might plug or make a deep mark when it lands. Please repair!

Be sure swing easily from the fairway and hit the ball easily. You might need to take one more club accordingly.

Concentrate on hitting the ball first. A strike that is the least bit fat will throw up mud and the ball will go only a very short distance. If your habit is to take a divot, try to play for picking the ball off the ground.

Near the green, put away the bump and run because the wet ground can grab the ball before it has a chance to run. When chipping from greenside, try to minimize spin, which can again stop the ball before it starts to run.

A wet green will be a slower green, so you can hits putts more boldly. Play less break because of the added speed.

Read Rule 25-1, which tells you what to do if there is a build-up of casual water.

Do all this, and by golly, maybe you can become a True Golfer.

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Autumn Golf

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The weather has changed. We’re winding down the golf season, at least in the temperate Pacific Northwest. The greens have recovered from their fall sanding, and we can play a few more rounds before the rain settles in for the duration.

Summer is about scoring — taking advantage of the gains we made over the winter. But that comes with its own pressure and we can get so caught up in what we’re doing that we forget why we’re doing it.

We play golf for our athletic recreation, to have fun with friends, maybe to have a bit of friendly competition from time to time.

We also seek golf’s beautiful, manicured surroundings. The plainest golf course is a finer place to be than the most beautiful bowling alley, and autumn is the time when any golf course is at its best.

If you play a parkland course, the trees are turning color and it’s worth the green fees just to the stroll around the grounds. The soft autumn light makes the colors of the summer course more intense as well. It’s a thrill just to be out here.

The cooler temperatures are a plus, too, at least for me. Golf in 70° weather is ideal.

The easy autumn atmosphere puts my mind at ease. Out for a stroll, hit the ball occasionally, that’s about it. With my mind more on the enjoyment of my surroundings than on playing the game, all the good things seem easier to do.

I play most at this time of year when I pick up my grandson after school. We tee off at about 3:30 and finish a few hours later when the sun is low and the day is winding down. There aren’t many people on the course so we get lots of do-overs. Between shots we just have fun talking about whatever comes up.

So here’s to Autumn Golf. We say goodbye to a lovely summer, and get in touch again with why we love this game so much.

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The Driver and Parallax

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I have a new golf tip idea, but since I’m not swinging a golf club these days, I need your help in seeing if it works. It concerns addressing the ball with a driver. Here is what I would like you to try.

1. Tee up the ball like you normally do for a drive.

2. Hover the clubhead directly behind the ball so the ball appears centered on the clubface.

3. Drop the club to the ground using your shoulders as the hinge. Do not make any changes to your posture, or the length of your arms, or adjust the position of the clubface on the ground. Just lower the club. It should look like you’re addressing the ball off the toe.

4. Swing away. If this works, you should hit the ball on the center of the clubface.

The reason I came up with this is that there is a parallax effect when you address a teed ball. If you address the ball in a centered way with the club on the ground, the clubface will actually be aligned in the air to hit the ball on the heel.

Because the ball is raised, you must add a second dimension to the address. Addressing the teed ball in this new way should correct for that. At least that’s my thinking.

It’s important when you try this not to make a compensation because it looks like you’re now addressing the ball off the toe of the club. Just swing, see what happens, and let me know. Ten shots should make a good trial.

Also, Make sure you just make a golf swing. Don’t try to bash the ball or steer the clubhead. Just swing.

Thank you for your help. Let me know how/if it works.

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The Sound of Impact in Golf

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You can tell a lot about your swing by watching ball flight. One famous teacher, John Jacobs, doesn’t watch anything else. That’s all he needs to see to make his corrections.

You can also tell a lot about your swing by the way impact sounds. Here is where hitting off a mat is truly an advantage. When you’re hitting the ball first and the ground second, you hear a click mushed up against a thunk — like a sharp thunk — and the ball shoots into the sky.

If you hit a little fat, you hear the thunk but no click. Too thin, and you hear the click, but no thunk.

In fact, when you hit off a mat, you should be using the sound of impact as a reality check. You can hit a little bit behind the ball on a mat and still get a decent result because the club will slide along the mat for a ways. Off turf, the ball wouldn’t go anywhere.

Putting is the same way. There’s a sound that only comes when you hit the ball on the sweet spot. That sound accompanies a strike that doesn’t resonate into your hands and you see the ball jump off the face of the club. Paul Runyan used to practice putting by ear.

Chipping? Same thing as swinging. There’s a click right on top of a thunk and the ball leaps off the clubface.

It’s easiest to get this sound with your wedges, harder as you got to longer clubs, but practice with one club until you can make this sound consistently with it before moving on to the next one.

Play by ear. The ball can still go right or left, but if you’re hearing the right contact, you won’t see those stray shots very often. You’ll get the extra distance you’ve been wanting, too.

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In Golf, the Hole Is the Only Thing

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I started playing golf when I was 10 years old, but I knocked a golf ball around the back yard much earlier than that. My father had some wood-shafted clubs in the basement and a few balls which he let me hit over a little course which he laid out by setting tin cans set in the lawn for holes.

I would put the ball on the ground and think of one thing only: get the ball in the hole. I was too young to think about technique, taking too many shots, anything like that. All I wanted to do was get the ball in the hole, and that’s what I thought about with a child’s singe-minded intensity.

I remember that feeling even today, when I get too caught up in how I’m hitting a shot instead of why. The purpose of what I am about to do is to get the ball in the hole. There is no other.

That’s why, when I make adjustments to my chipping stroke because of an unusual situation, and I think only of the adjustments, the shot isn’t always satisfactory. When I look at the situation and adjust my setup and stroke with the hole in mind, I come up with some pretty interesting stuff and it works a lot more often.

Golf isn’t about making good shots, or doing what we practiced last time at the range. At the moment you tee up the ball you should be thinking only about how this shot will help you get the ball in the hole, because that’s what golf is about.

I’m lucky. I have this uncluttered memory of pure golf that only a child can play to fall back on. It’s not an intellectual thing. It’s a relentless, desperate attraction to the hole with which nothing else has a chance to compete.

Don’t think that I am not in favor of technique. Good technique will get the ball in the hole quicker than bad. My grandson has taken lessons and I help him on the course with a few suggestions, but only when things aren’t going well at all.

I try my best, though, to make sure that play doesn’t get confused with practice. When we practice, technique matters. When we play, only the hole matters.

That lets you hit any shot without fear, make mistakes without remorse, and play offensive golf for the entire round. And that’s a fun way to play.

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A Golf Swing Test

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In an earlier post, I talked about learning how to hit your pitching wedge and building that swing throughout your set, one club at a time. This is not an idea I cooked up and just wrote about. I actually did it, and it works great.

To show you the benefit of getting on that program, try this exercise. Play eighteen holes with just your 9-iron and your putter. What you’re going to do is skip the tee shot on the par 4s and 5s and walk toward the green until you get to the distance from it that you hit your 9-iron, say, 125 yards. Drop a ball, hit on, and putt out.

The goal of the exercise is to hit as many greens as you can. Ten would be a good number. If it is significantly less than that, either practice with your 9-iron until you can hit ten, or get a lesson from a PGA professional and learn how to hit a 9-iron.

If you did get ten or more, try it again with your 8-iron. Keep progressing, out to about 175 yards, until you find the club that you can’t hit greens with. Then start working with that club.

I know, I’m asking you to go to the course and not hit your driver or all the other clubs, nor turn in a score. Consider this exercise to be tuition in the College of Golf.

On the other hand, this is also how I play golf when I go out with my grandson, and it’s kind a fun way to get around the course for a change. I think you’ll like it, too.

There is an additional benefit to the exercise. You will learn a lot about hitting greens, because that’s the only thing on your mind. You will start hitting the ball with a controlled swing that puts the ball where you want it. You might cut down your distance a bit as you raise your accuracy. That’s all right.

You can take from now until March to go through this project. There’s no hurry. There are so many shots we have to hit in golf, that it gets overwhelming trying to maintain all of them. So simplify for a while. Just work on one club at a time and give it the attention it probably never had before.

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Lightning on the Golf Course

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I live in a part of the country where a lightning storm is as rare as hen’s teeth. Many of you are more vulnerable to this dangerous occurrence.

A reader of this space sent me an article last week about a tragic accident on a golf course when a golfer was killed by a lighting strike. The stricken individual unfortunately failed to heed two lightning safety regulations by standing under a tree and pushing his metal golf cart. The photo below shows what was left of his golf cart and clubs.

The temperature of a lighting bolt is, according to reliable sources, over 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. You have no chance if struck.


The inside back cover of the USGA rule book contains vital advice about what to do if you are caught on the golf course when lightning is in the area.

Seek:
1. A large permanent building (and get inside).
2. A fully enclosed metal vehicle (car, van, pickup truck).
3. A low elevation area (like a bunker).

Avoid:
1. Tall object (trees, poles).
2. Small rain and sun shelters.
3. Large open areas, wet areas, or elevated greens.
4. All metal objects (including golf clubs, golf carts, fences, electrical machinery, and power lines)

If you are caught in a lightning storm without warning, your group should spread out, get away from your clubs, squat down in a ball, tuck your head, and cover your ears (get low and get round). You cannot remain standing. When you do, you turn yourself into a lightning rod.

Do not take lightning lightly. If you can see lightning, start taking precautions. Visit the National Lightning Safety Institute for more information.

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Hit the Golf Ball Forward, Not Up

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Beginning golfers haven’t learned yet to trust the club to get the ball in the air. It is not unusual for them to try lifting the ball in the air as they hit it. If they learn golf the right way, that is, by taking lessons, this tendency will be eliminated quickly.

Many golfers do not take lessons, though, and have retained this insidious habit. It is called flipping, and I’ll bet you know someone who does it. This flaw leads both to topping the ball and hitting it fat in the full swing, and to dumping short chips and pitches in front of their objective when close to the pin.

The cure is to learn how to drive the ball forward. By drive, I don’t mean hit it with your driver, but impel the ball straight forward.

That’s how you hit the ball, by the way, on all but the most specialized shots. You hit it forward. The loft of the club takes care of the getting-it-in-the-air part.

If this is your habit, try this drill to fix it. Hit some medium-length chips firmly with an 8-iron. Figure on the ball landing about fifty feet away. The drill is to make sure the club shaft and your left arm are in a straight line when you hit the ball, and they stay that way in the follow-through. I chose such a short shot to make it easy to keep your left arm from wanting to fold.

This will give you the idea of driving the ball forward, which prevents the right hand from flipping under in a (pointless) attempt to get the ball in the air.

When you get this down, you can hit longer shots and include a body turn so you can follow through farther but still keep the arm-shaft line straight. As your swing lengthens, the left arm will have to start folding after the ball has been struck, but if you have done your work with the short shots, that arm will stay straight as the club goes through the ball.

Hit through the ball in this short way a lot. A whole lot. Over time, you will replace the flipping habit with a habit of keeping your wrists in the correct position at impact.

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