beginners

Getting the Golf Ball Off the Ground

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For beginning golfers, their biggest triumph comes on the day when they learn to get the ball in the air consistently. Finally getting the ball to fly naturally off the clubface against a background of blue sky, on command, is a tremendous thrill. It is the gate that everyone must pass through to begin playing better golf.

The reason why this is so hard at first is because of the tiny margin of error in striking a golf ball, compared to other ball-and-stick sports. The golf ball is the smallest of hit balls, the golf club is the smallest of sticks, and the ground the ball sits on takes away half the room where an error in contact can be made.

Getting over this hurdle can be a reason why beginners decide to stop trying. It’s not easy. If you know someone who is taking up the game and is frustrated in this way, suggest the following:

1. Tee up the ball. Take the ground out of play for a while. Give yourself back that margin of error. Make sure the tee is the right height, though. For hitting an iron, the bottom of the ball should lie no more than one-half inch above the ground. For a driver, . . . , well, a beginner shouldn’t be hitting a driver, so we won’t go into that.

2. Do not try to lift the ball into the air. The iron club has an angled face, which is designed for that function. Just meet the ball. Getting the ball into the air is the club’s responsibility, not the golfer’s.

3. Start small. Hit little shots with a lofted club, such as a 9-iron, by taking a backswing of no more than four or five feet. If you return the club through the ball without thinking of hitting the ball, but only letting the club pass through the spot where the ball is, the ball will pop into the air just like that.

4. Ease into taking bigger swings, all the time just letting the club flow through the ball. The club’s design will get the ball in the air. (Remember that in steps 3 and 4, you’re hitting the ball off a tee.)

5. When you get to the point where you’re hitting one clean shot into the air after another, remove the tee and hit balls off a fluffy bed of grass. That will give you a little bit of room to hit underneath the ball and still be all right. Move at an appropriate rate to grass that is at normal playing height where the ball is resting firmly on the ground. You’ve made it! You’re in the club.

Now go play and have fun.

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

potpourri

The Golf Season So Far

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This happens every year. Just when I start to get my summer revved up, August is about to begin. We have short summers in Oregon, and this year it was especially short because of the long, wet spring we had. The parade of golf tournaments helps me keep track of how the year is passing by when the weather gives me false signals.

As far I’m concerned, the pro golf season ends with the British Open and i start thinking about college football. (See http://www.presnapread.com/.) As you read in my recent preview, it’s one of my favorite tournaments of the year, though this year I was in Japan when it was being played, and didn’t get to see any of it because of the time zone difference.

The PGA Championship doesn’t really grab me. Sorry. . .

The biggest story of the year is that we’re in a transition from one era to another. The Tiger/Phil is coming to a close (no, Tiger, when he comes back will be a very good player, but no longer a great one), European golf is ascendant, and the distinction between tours is blurring. If professional golf were a free market, we would be seeing a shake-out on both the PGA and European tours and the establishment of a world tour.

But that might involve American players traveling to foreign countries, eating food other than they are used to, and speaking a language other than English, (can you just imagine Bubba Watson ordering snails en Francais?). So let’s not hold our breath on a free market.

What we will find is that the success of European players gives them the power to resist the demands the PGA Tour levies on participants in its tournaments. The absence of current stars because of parochial membership requirements will have to give way soon. That would establish a freer market, and the results would be interesting.

For the ladies, it will take an economic recovery for the LPGA to schedule more than 30 tournaments. They’re trying to hang on by having a fifth major, and by holding it outside the U.S., are taking clear steps to create a world tour. Bully for them. Fortunately we have on of their precious events in the Portland area every August. If you want to see how good the ladies really are, and how good you aren’t, try to catch an LPGA event.

As for my season, I described in an earlier post the swing change my pro gave me to work on, and I’m still working on it. It’s paying off handsomely around the green already, but with longer clubs, the results are slower coming.

Here’s a hint, though. Friday I played with my grandson and was in the rough with my drive, 193 yards from the green. I took out my 24-degree hybrid, which in spring was my 175-yard club, and launched a gentle draw all the way to the green, the ball resting about 20 feet beyond the pin. And that was all carry, folks. No bouncing off rock-hard fairways.

I haven’t played much golf, because I’m also getting in shape for a trans-canyon hike at the Grand Canyon at the end of September. The conditioning hikes don’t leave me the legs for golf. Come October, I’ll be back in force.

When I do play, I’ve been carrying only six clubs. There was a note in an old Golf Digest magazine I picked up that told of a men’s club that had a six-club tournament. Twenty-three of the twenty-five players shot their handicap or better, and one 12-handicapper shot a 74. Try cutting down on your bag. It’s more fun, and you will not lose a stroke.

One last note. I finally got to single digits this year. For all of you who are close, let me tell you. You don’t have to hit the ball great all the time, just well enough most of the time. The difference in how I’m scoring right now, when I play, is that I don’t throw away shots by not thinking clearly or by having nightmare holes. Every shot I hit is the best I can do at the moment. If you’re a 12, you’re good enough to be a 9. You just have to stop wasting shots, and that’s mental.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

short game

Why Should You Work On Your Short Game?

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Someone posted a thread on a golf forum that I read asking why he should work on his short game. The responses were pretty much to the point, which is, that no one has a flawless long game, and your short game will keep your mistakes in the LG department from hurting you.

It’s true that to play your best, at any level, you have to be able to hit the ball. A wicked short game won’t help you if you waste strokes getting the ball up to the green. It’s somewhat like a distance runner who has a blazing kick at the end of the race, but who lacks the endurance to stay in contact with the lead so his kick will matter.

May I repeat, this is not a chicken-or-the-egg problem. You’ll never score well unless you learn to hit the ball. Here’s a story which does not contradict that maxim, but illustrates clearly how the short game fits into scoring.

About eight years ago, I played golf with a guy, in his fifties, about 5’6″, 150, not a big guy, who also had a withered left arm. He hit the ball straight, but not very far.

His short game looked pretty good, too. Every shot he hit around the green ended up close to the hole. It was like his ball had an iron core and there was a magnet in the hole.

I was paying more attention to my game than his, but when I did, I noticed he was always getting a par. When the round was over, he had shot a 73, without hitting any shot from the tee or fairway that was noticeably spectacular.

I asked him about this, and he told me that he got this condition with his arm when he was a child, and he knew he would never become a long hitter. To score, he would have to have an outstanding short game. And that’s what he had.

Now he wasn’t having to get up and down on every hole. He did hit greens. It’s just that when he missed, he still got his par. His short game allowed him to get the most out of what his long game could deliver. That is what the short game does for you. That is why you should practice your short game.

Good enough for a player with a physical handicap, good enough for all of us, too.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com/

rules

The Rules Of Golf In One Page

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There are two kinds of golfers – the ones who play by the rules and the ones who don’t. Or is it, there are two kinds of golfers – the ones who know the rules and the ones who don’t?

Actually, there are two kinds of golfers – the ones who play by the rules, but don’t know them, the ones who don’t play by the rules and don’t know them. Of the two possibilities left over, knowing the rules and playing by them and knowing the rules and not playing by them, there are no golfers like that because nobody knows the rules.

The rule book as 97 pages and there is an 457-page book of decisions on arcane exceptions that came up once in a tournament, and even that is not all-encompassing. Our sport is too complicated!

When the rules of golf were first codified in 1744, there were just thirteen rules. They dealt with conditions of the day, such as dogs and horses on the course (no mention of cows, sheep, and goats), clubs breaking, and balls “coming among wattery filth.” One can only imagine what that might refer to, given sanitation practices of the day.

But the idea you get from reading those rules is that you hit your ball, go find it, and hit it again. No excuses. They’re so simple that even your average PGA touring professional would know at least eleven of them.

For golfers who really want to know today’s rules, there isn’t much hope. There’s just too much material and the rules interact in unexpected ways. That’s where The Recreational Golfer comes to your rescue.

Over at therecreationalgolfer.com, there is a one-page set of rules that covers just about everything that would occur in normal play. The hedges are “just about” and “normal.” I’m using 12-point type, and to to condense 97 pages into one, you would need about .025-point type and a microscope, so I had to leave a lot out.

What got left out is mainly the legalistic language the rules have to contain to account for clubhouse lawyers who insist that the letter of the rule apply exactly to their case instead of understanding the spirit of the game. You know the type.

I call my short set of rules, The Rules of Recreational Golf. They’re easy to understand, easy to apply for people who are just out to bat the ball around the course and enjoy their surroundings and the company they’re keeping. For turning in a handicap round, or playing in a tournament, keep to the USGA rule book.

If you want to play by the rules, and I hope you do, try playing by these. If you do, you’ll get it right (except for the ridiculous out of bounds rule, which I changed), and you’ll know a great deal more about the rules than 95 percent of the golfers you play with.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

commentary

The David Feherty Show

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About four weeks ago, The Golf Channel started a show with David Feherty interviewing notable golfers in his inimitable style.

The first few shows tried out Feherty as a stand-up comic, and yarn-spinner, neither role of which suits him. He is the master of the out-of-nowhere zinger. Later shows feature this aspect of his humor, settling him into what he does best.

The shows began with Lee Trevino, went on to Tom Watson, Charles Barkley, Johnny Miller, and this week, a topical interview with Rory McIlroy. This last one was a masterpiece. Watch a re-broadcast this week if you get a chance. Here is a local boy who made good, with a square head on his shoulders. He knows what fame is getting him into, that his life will change because of it, though not always for the better, and his upbringing has prepared him for it all.

Feherty is a thoughtful and focused interviewer. He has a clear understanding of the question he wants to ask, asks it, then stops talking to let us hear the answer. He is a respectful interviewer, who can ask a pointed question in an honest way that doesn’t smack of gotcha. If he is touching on a flaw, it’s one he has had, too, and his point is how did you overcome it. The conversation is partly about golf, partly about life.

He has had a hard life and speaks about his problems, not to gain pity or encourage support, but to say to us, “This is who I am.” Because of his honest and respectful approach to his life, the people he speaks to open up about theirs, because they feel safe with him, in a way that they might not with another TCG interviewer or Joe ESPN.

I hope you’re watching this show, which is broadcast on Tuesday evening. There are some laughs, some soul-searching, and a conversation between two people who in some aspect of life are in the same club and understand each other on that level.

In a low-key way, this is some of the best television I have seen in a long time.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

people

Another Tiger Woods Blog Post

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If you are a regular reader of TRG, you will have noticed a lack of mention of Tiger Woods, a famous golfer who is now famous for not playing golf.

This generation of sportswriters doesn’t know what to write about except him. Tiger wins – 20-point bold head and six pages. Tiger watches at home on TV – lead article with photos (Oh yeah, the guy who won. Might as well give him some ink, too. Picture if you got one.)

Tiger is the story. Not Tiger is the story, too. Good grief.

We have had a long dry spell of Not Tiger, and I have plenty of other things to write about, but I have to break my silence. He fired Steve Williams.

Now that doesn’t break me up too much. I’m not crying for a guy who earned $9M on Woods’s bag, and is now carrying for Adam Scott. I just can’t figure out why it took this long.

Nor can I figure out why Williams is miffed. Doesn’t he know who he worked for? The guy who will and has fired anybody he chose to further his career. Loyalty is a one-way street in his company. The only sign points to Woods.

What I can’t figure out is why anybody still carries a torch for this guy. He has character flaws to burn and they aren’t well-hidden. Sure, he smiles and knows how to be a nice guy. But at life’s turning points, where you show what you are really made of, Woods fails the good character test every time.

I don’t write him off, because anyone can change. I sincerely hope he does. It would be sad for his legacy to be, “Yes, he won all those tournaments, but . . .” The but being he was pretty much an amateur human being.

He needs someone in his life who he can go to when he’s being a schmuck who will tell him, “You’re being a schmuck, knock it off.” Not sure that will ever happen.

So Williams will, in a few weeks, realize that being released from Woods’s company was a positive career move and will find his life to be much better off for it.

Let’s not close before we mention Rachel Uchitel, one of Woods’s paramours. She’s trying to get out of a consent agreement that keeps her quiet about her affair with the Father of the Year. Will she be able to go public with the lurid details? Would you love to read them? It’s just another act in what’s become a circus, isn’t it?

Back to writing about golf.

distance

Can You Swing Easy and Hit a Golf Ball Far?

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[ Nov. 2, 2018 – A less wordy version of this post ]

Someone once asked me, how do you hit the ball as far as you do when you have such an easy swing?

I said, That’s the answer. What’s the question?

When you hit the ball on the center of the clubface, that being the golf swing’s primary distance generator, you get all the distance you deserve. You’ll hit the ball straighter, too.

This doesn’t mean to swing with no power at all, just that if you’re trying to muscle the club through the ball to get your power, that actually slows the club down and you get less distance.

Ease back until you make centered contact consistently. That is the source of distance.

When you can do that, it will feel like you’re playing a different game.

practice

One Hour At the Driving Range

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If you’re a golfer with a busy life, finding time to practice golf is not easy. When you do get a chance to go to the range, every minute counts. These practice plans will let you practice the golf’s most critical skills in one hour.

Plan 1:
Get to the range and buy a bucket of 40 balls.

From the range:
0:00-0:03  Warm up with three or four pitches of 60-75 yards.

0:03-0:25  Hit full shots, in this sequence: 9,9,7,7,5,5,3,3,D. Repeat twice. Hit longer pitches with any remaining balls. The next time out, hit an 8,8,6,6,4,4,2,2,D sequence. If your range has a practice bunker, you can alternate hitting practice bunker shots instead of hitting the pitches to specific distances.

Notice that this is a lot of time to hit less than 40 balls. Take your time, take lots of practice swings, get set up for each ball like you would on the course. Make each ball be worth something.

On the practice green:
0:25-0:40  Using four balls, hit chips from about six feet off the green to four targets of varying distances. Then go putt out each ball. Repeat at least twice. Try this with a 6-iron and with a sand wedge. The 6-iron would be used for a regular greenside chip, and the sand wedge for chipping over an obstacle between the ball and the green. Practice chipping out of the rough. This is a special skill which you might need a lesson to learn how to do correctly.

0:40-1:00  With just one ball, practice 2-foot putts from different angles around a hole. Repeat with 3-foot putts. Hit approach putts from 40, 30, 20, and 15 feet, just getting the ball close to the hole. Practice a few breaking putts, uphill, downhill, or sidehill, reading the putt first. Invent putting games of your own to make putting practice enjoyable.

Plan 2:

Get to the range and buy a bucket of 40 balls. 

0:00-0:30 Work on these two shots only: your 150-yard club, and the long pitch. The first shot comes from Harvey Penick’s writings. If you get good at getting down in three from 150 yards in, you’ll score very well. Hitting the green from 150 yards in is the best way to do that. Next, hit pitches from 60-90 yards. The point is to find out which wedges give you predictable distances. See this post for pointers on how to control distances in the range.

0:30-1:00 Practice chipping and putting as above. Always spend half your time at the range around the practice green.

Plan 3:

Get a lesson. There has to be something you need to learn how to do or need to improve on.  A half-hour lesson, followed by a half hour of practicing what you were just taught, is one of the best ways to spend an hour at the range. Once a month is not too often.

Golf is the most time-consuming, practice-driven recreational sport there is. If you’ve chosen to play, organizing your practice is the best way to make the time you spend on the course worthwhile.

See also Two hours at the range.

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

playing the game

The Social Hazards of Recreational golf

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Recreational golf is primarily a social game. The most important part of the day is having fun with the people you’re playing with and making their day as enjoyable as yours. It is possible, though, that socializing can prevent you from playing your best golf. Here’s how to be a good friend and a good player at the same time.

Between shots your mind will be on the people you’re playing with. When it comes time to hit, all your attention need to be placed on your shot. The danger that the social aspects of golf create is that when that time comes, you won’t switch your focus from your friends to your shot.

We don’t want you to spend the round in a little cocoon, of course. But when it’s your turn to hit, that’s exactly what you have to do so that your best performance can emerge.

The requirements for hitting your best shot are first, to figure out what that shot should be, that is, what shot from here makes the most sense in getting my ball up to the hole the quickest and easiest? Next is getting your mind ready to hit that shot by convincing yourself that you can do it. Finally, you set up to the ball, aim yourself, and swing away.

You can’t do any of this while you’re still having a conversation with a playing partner or thinking about something someone else is doing. You really need to spend about forty seconds being a bit self-centered.

Don’t think that this is being selfish, because it’s not. It’s really a matter of respect. By withdrawing from pleasantries to hit your shot, you’re respecting yourself by giving yourself the best chance to play well. By quieting the conversation with another player who is getting ready to hit, you give that person the same respect.

One of the ways we help our playing partners have a good day on the course is to do whatever we can to help them play their best. Golf has a unique set of etiquette rules designed in part to make sure that players do not disturb each other when a stroke is being made. Good golfers know these rules and follow them.

Beyond that is respecting each other as athletes. Golf is a sport that everyone wants to do well at. When everybody in the group understands that, the athletic and social halves of the game combine perfectly for everyone’s benefit.

What do you do if there’s a talker in your group? One day I was paired with one. I stood on the tee behind my ball looking down the fairway. He kept talking and I kept looking. Talking, looking. More talking, more looking. Finally he realized that I wasn’t going to move until he quieted down. I don’t know about the others in our group, but I didn’t have a problem with him again for the rest of the day.

Enjoy golf, enjoy it with your friends. Just remember that too much of the social whirl isn’t what makes you a better golfer. Don’t be afraid to step out of it when you need to.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

mental game

Avoiding Mental Drift While Playing Golf

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Normally, or at least hopefully, you begin your round fully focused and mentally ready to play your best golf. And, for the first four holes or so, you do. Then the trouble starts. Your focus wanders and you have a few bad holes and wonder what happened. You were playing so well and then it just fell apart.

You failed to maintain your focus. The complete attention you gave to your previous shots got lost. You went through the motions of making a shot, but your mind was not on the task.

The way to avoid this let-down is to make yourself see every shot fresh. Treat every shot as if it were the first shot of the day. Re-engage your concentration every time you step up to the ball. How?

When it’s time to hit the ball, your mind needs to be on figuring out the best shot to hit from where you are. This is no time to congratulate yourself on the great shot that got you there, or kick yourself for the bad shot that put you where you would rather not be. Your attention needs to be on this one thought: from here, what is the best play I can make?

In other words, given my skills, where should I play the ball so I’m in the best position for my next shot? Take some time to figure this out. Set your mind, even, to playing two or three shots in advance.

For example, say my drive ends up on the right side of the fairway on a par-5 hole. Getting to the ball, I can see that the pin is on the right side of the green, tucked behind a bunker. If I play straight for the flag, I’ll have to pitch over the bunker for my third shot.

But I also see that if I play my next shot to the left side of the fairway, the green is fairly open and even if my pitch is short, it will still be on the green. So I hit my ball up the left side of the fairway.

Getting to the ball, I can see that the pin is in the back of the green on ground that is fairly level. The front portion of the green slopes toward me, so I’ll have an uphill putt if my pitch is short. Better to err on the long side with my pitch. And that bunker is now on the right, so best to be a bit left with the pitch. Left and long is the shot.

It’s thinking like this before every shot that will keep your mind actively engaged with the game.

Finally, go through a pre-shot routine before each shot. That routine can take any form. There is no sequence of steps that is more right than another one, nor any required elements except for making sure you’re aimed correctly and that your mind is focused on what you’re doing.

What you’re doing, by the way, is literally that. What you want to have happen, what you don’t want to have happen, whether you might not be able to do it, these thoughts are not included. Put your mind on being confident that the stroke you’re about to make will be the good stroke that you know is in you.

The last step is to accustom yourself to keeping this process going for a four-hour round. It’s not easy, and it will take work. Good luck.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

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