The Recreational Golfer™

Total Command of the Golf Ball

2012-01-29T08:22:00.000-08:00

If you want to be a golfer who has the right shot for every occasion, you need to be able to control distance, spin, curvature, and trajectory. We will reduce direction, the fifth characteristic of a golf shot, to being able to hit a straight ball and assume that you already know how to do that, since the other four controls are variations of this shot and depend on your being able to hit it.

Please don't think, though, that I'm going to tackle that project in this post or in a series of posts. I want you to really learn how to do all those things, not just get a general idea, and you do that by signing up for a series of lessons of your own design. This is what you would tell the pro you want to learn.

Say you hit your 7-iron 145 yards. To get the ball close to a pin with a 7-iron, that one distance isn't enough. You need to know how to hit it anywhere between 133 and 145. That's lesson number one.

Sometimes when you’re chipping you need to put on spin so the ball will stop. Other times you need to take spin off so the ball will run. Ask the pro how you hit each shot, with the same club.

Sometimes you would like to bend the ball a little bit into a tucked pin. Other times you need to bend the ball a lot around a tree. Learn both shots, curving left or right. Find out how to do that.

Hitting shots into the green with a higher or lower trajectory will get you closer to the pin by design rather than by chance. With a pin in front, a high shot that sits quickly is best. A lower shot that releases is how to get to a pin in back. Hitting into an elevated green calls for a higher trajectory. Controlling trajectory is a vital skill for playing on a windy day. All of this is the fourth lesson.

None of these things are difficult to do, and winter is a good time to learn how. Your teaching pro will be delighted to spend time with you on these matters, since few golfers ask about them. Afterwards, just keep these skills in practice to be in command on the golf course.

Remembering Your Golf Swing

2012-01-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

One reason why the golf swing is so difficult is that many golfers do not have a good idea from one day to the next just exactly how they swing the club. They often rely on the groove they got into last time at the range, but the move they thought was The Difference can't be found the next time out. Now what?

You would have to have daily lessons and daily practice to remember every detail in your golf swing and know just what to do to correct yourself when something goes wrong. The best bet for a recreational golfer is to remember how to perform five critical parts of the swing and just work on performing them the same way every time. If so, what happens in between has to be happening the same way, too.

The five parts of the swing to remember are: the takeaway, the end of the backswing, the start of the downswing, impact, and the finish.

Takeaway defines your club path and the plane of your backswing. The end of the backswing is the furthest limit of your being able to feel that the clubhead is still connected to the ball. The start of the downswing can be led in many ways, but never with your hands. Impact is, of course, impact, but it is a dynamic position, one of moving through, not of arriving at, a spot. The finish is where this all leads to. When the finish is right, likely everything that came before it was, too.

You can practice each one of these positions separately. The task is to memorize what each one feels like, installing the feeling into our subconscious awareness so that the movements in between will automatically seek the next position. When you play, you could take a slow practice swing to rehearse hitting all the right feelings.

Good golf is not played by having a great swing. It's played by making your best swing more often. Learning these five basic positions, given a fundamentally sound grip, stance, posture, and alignment, will take care of that.

Long Irons

2012-01-25T14:37:00.000-08:00

I get a few ideas for what to write about in this space from the keywords that people use to find it. Lately there have been a few searches concerning long irons. I give you from today's list:

faster swing speed with long irons
how far do you hit a 4-iron
anyone play gi irons in their long irons?

These are good questions that deserve good answers. Most of us feel comfortable up to about 160 yards and then from 200 yards and up. It's that gap that we find difficult to fill. We're still trying to hit the ball a selected distance, and straight, and that's not easy for a recreational golfer to do.

You have two options in terms of equipment -- long irons or hybrid irons. Long irons were what I grew up playing with. Iron sets came 2-9. The pitching wedge was a separate purchase. In those days, instruction books had sections, and golf magazines had tips, on how to hit your long irons. There were as many of those articles then as there are "How to get out of a bunker" articles today. They were the clubs recreational golfers just couldn't get off the ground or hit the distance advertised.

It's the same thing today. Long irons are still hard to hit. I can hit a good shot with my 4-iron about two out of three times, with my 3-iron about one out of three times, and my 2-iron is strictly to be hit off a tee. At least that's what I would have said if you had asked me eight years ago.

I went to a Ben Hogan demo day at my driving range and tried out one of these new hybrid clubs. I borrowed a 3. The first ball I hit, with no expectations, was as good as any 3-iron shot I had ever hit. Same thing for the next two balls. Three rockets in a row. I needed no more convincing, and a few weeks later bought a 2, 3, and 4 Ben Hogan hybrid, which I still use in addition to the 5 which I picked up three years ago.

So let's get to those questions.

faster swing speed with long irons -- you definitely need a high swing speed to hit these clubs well. If your drives carry about 250 yards, that's 250 in the air, not air plus roll equals 250, then you have enough swing speed for a long iron to give you its due. You don't swing faster with a long iron. You swing with what you have. If you don't have it with your driver, you don't have it period.

how far do you hit a 4-iron -- as far as I hit my 4-hybrid, but not nearly as often.

anyone play gi irons in their long irons? -- honestly, if you use gi irons, you don't have a long iron swing.

Sometimes I take my long irons to the range and hit them just for fun, but I would never play with them. There's no reason for you to, either, not when you can use clubs that are so easy to hit it's almost cheating.

Belly Putters - Part II

2012-01-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

When Keegan Bradley won the PGA last summer and used a belly putter, and Webb Simpson won twice with the same, the BP controversy erupted. Everybody had an opinion about the long stick, and I wrote the definitive piece myself. In the December 2011 Golf Digest, there is a huge section about the pros and cons of "unconventional" putting.

The people who say that anchoring the putter to your body in some way, "Just isn't golf," are probably just upset because they didn't try it themselves sooner. I don't mind if you anchor the putter. If you want to get a long driver and anchor that, fine with me.

We don't anchor the club we swing because if you want to hit the ball a long ways, you have to wind the club around your body and unwind it back around so you can give the ball a good whack. That's physics, and that will not change because there's no other way a human can hit the ball a long way.

On the putting green, though, you're not trying to hit the ball a long way. You're trying to coax the ball across a manicured surface into the hole. Winding the club around you isn't the swing model that applies here. Why would anyone think it should? Why would anyone think that because you have to hit a 5-iron in a particular way, that you automatically have to hit a completely different shot using a miniature version of that same way?

Another argument you hear is that the belly putter gives the players who use it an unfair advantage. Over . . . ?? Players who don't use one? Then they should use one!

All the grousing comes down to tradition. Ah, tradition. The way we have always done it. It was good enough for me, so there's no reason to change things. What about the records.

Well, there is only one tradition in golf. That is, you hit a ball sitting on the ground with a stick, with your own effort, until the ball goes into a hole. Period. As long as that doesn't change, it's golf.

Let's not forget that more than fifty percent of putting comes down to how you use your mind. People who think that a different style will revolutionize putting are neglecting the power of the mind in playing good golf. Which would help you sink more putts -- a different club, or more confidence?

All the grousing over the belly putter neglects that first fundamental. You can belly putt all you want, but if your mind gets agitated on the green, I'll beat you one-handed with my Bullseye.

Ball Position

2012-01-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

This variable is so critical to hitting your best shot and it is so easy to get right. Along with grip and aim, getting ball position right makes the difference between success and failure before you even start your swing. You can get everything else right but if the ball is in the wrong position for your swing you will only hit a weak, glancing blow and be robbed of your full power.

There are two dimensions to ball position -- how far it is away from you, and where it sits forward or back of the center of your stance. Figure out how far away the ball should be by setting up without a ball. Swing a few times and watch where the top of the club flashes past you toward the target. That is where your swing delivers the clubhead, and that is where the ball goes. Simple.

The forward and back matter is also easily resolved. Harvey Penick told us in his Little Red Book that all you have to do is pick up the club, take your grip and stance, and set the clubhead down on the ground. It will go by itself to the right place. Try it. Pick up your 7-iron, take your grip, get into your stance and lower the club to the ground. It will probably land in the center of your stance, midway between your left foot and your right.

Now do the same thing with a 3-iron. I would bet that if you do nothing to influence the outcome, the club will land about two balls in front of center -- about halfway between the center of your stance and the inside edge of your left heel. You have read that longer clubs need to be played progressively closer to your left heel, but you were never sure how close. This method shows you.

Remember, don't take this little detail for granted. Ball position is a critical element of good ball-striking. Get it right before you make any stroke at the ball.

Keep the Long Clubs at Home

2012-01-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

Handicap golfers get into trouble by hitting shots with clubs they can’t handle well. I’m thinking of the longer clubs, the driver and the long irons/hybrids. Because these clubs have a straighter face, sidespin is accentuated, exacerbating your slice or hook. Because you’re aiming at targets fairly far away, identical errors in accuracy are magnified relative to shorter clubs. The longer swing makes it harder to contact the ball squarely. It’s just too easy to go wrong. You will therefore save yourself strokes if you follow this rule:

Never use a club that has less loft than your average score over par.

If you aren’t breaking 100 (28 over par), the 5-iron (32 degrees of loft) is your big gun. Break 90 regularly and you can move up to a 2-iron/hybrid. Drivers are for golfers who break 80.

Follow this rule, the ball will be in the fairway much more often because you will be hitting straighter shots. By trading occasional distance for habitual accuracy, you will get to the green in fewer strokes than you do now. Yes, you won’t be shooting for par on every hole, but since you’re a handicap golfer anyway, par is not always your expectation. What you will remove from your scorecard are the doubles and triples. You will also learn more about playing the game because your ball will more often be in a position for you to play a hole by attacking it rather than by recovering from wayward shots.

I know the driver is loads of fun and it feels great and you impress your buddies when you nail a long one. But if you want to shoot a lower score than they do, this might be the way to go.

Three Shots this Winter

2012-01-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

Unless you live south of the 35th parallel, you aren't playing a lot of golf right now. That's good. It means you can take the time to practice three shots which, if you get really good at, are going to cut strokes off your game by the relative fistful.

These shots are the 7-iron approach, the chip from 10-25 yards, and the 30-foot approach putt. If you can hit the first one well, then all you have to do is get the ball past the 150-yard marker and your next shot will put the ball on the green. The second shot covers the chips you hit more often than the greenside chip, and is the shot that I would guess loses you more strokes in your short game than any other. Get 30-foot putts close and you will cut way down on three-putt greens and become a better putter from everywhere else, too.

When you go to the range, take a 7-iron, a sand wedge, and a putter. Practice these three shots only. In a one-hour visit to the range, spend twenty minutes on each one. These are not the only areas where you lose strokes regularly, but they are the easiest places to get lost strokes back with dedicated practice.

Notice that I didn't say anything about the driver. You do have to get the ball in the fairway or what you do next to the green won't count for much. So hit a fairway wood or long iron off the tee with your 7-iron swing. Keep the ball in play and make some putts. It's a simple game.

Pro Golf is Back

2012-01-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

I check out of pro golf every year after the PGA is over. The Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, Solheim Cup, those events don't do much for me. After the PGA is finished in August, all the men's and women's majors have been played and it's time for college football anyway.

So every year it takes me a little while to get used to how good the pro golfers are. I watched the third round of the Sony Open yesterday, and I'll watch the finish today because 18 guys are within four shots of the lead on a course where low scores will be plentiful.

What I had forgotten:
1. How hard they and fast they swing, such as the current co-leader, Matt Every.
2. How dead straight they are. Nick Faldo showed us the 8-yard-wide opening to the 18th green that players have to navigate from about 250 yards away. I lost count of how many golfers bounced the ball onto the green right through that gap from that distance.
3. How important every putt is. The moment I tuned in I saw a guy miss a three-footer and a few minutes later saw someone else miss a putt of the same length.
4. How much I want to go to Hawaii this time of year.

For the past several years the official opening of my golf season has been to watch Bubba Watson jump out of his shoes cutting the corner with his drive on 18, but he's not in the tournament this year, so I guess we won't get to see that.

The group I would follow today if I were there is the Corey Pavin and Chris DiMarco duo. I would learn a lot about how to play golf, and there wouldn't be that many people in their gallery, so I would get to see everything.

One thing about pro golf that I hadn't forgotten, and that I saw plenty of yesterday, is that to shoot a score you have to keep the ball in play and make some putts. My son, who is 35 and learning to play, calls me after every round. We go over which shots didn't work out in order that he might learn better ways of getting the ball around the course. Right now my thing is for him not to tee off with any club longer than a 4-iron. He's doing that, and finding out how different golf is when you hit second shots from the fairway.

Anyway, I advise him that next time he should try this shot, or this strategy, and you know what? He takes notes! Not that I know anything, but he writes it down! For all you readers who have teenagers in the house who think you are sooooo stupid, there's hope. A time will come when they listen to you. Actually, they're listening now, but they just don't want to admit it. I'm hearing both our sons say to me, "You know when you always used to tell us X? Well, . . . "

But, back to golf. There's snow and ice on the ground in the Pacific NW today (see #4, above), which means putting practice indoors and the Sony Open at 4 this afternoon. Life is good.

The Rules of Golf 2012-2015

2012-01-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

I got my new rule book from the USGA in the mail today. This book is the result of a close collaboration between the USGA and the R&A, and was published with both sets of readers in mind. The copy inside is distinctly British, using a Gill Sans typeface, common in Great Britain, but not over here, which makes the Rule book much easier to read than before. Penalties are in red type, making them easier to notice. If you need glasses to read with, though, the size of the typeface could be problem on the course.

The highlight of the book is a seven-page section titled, "A Quick Guide to the Rules of Golf." The rules themselves are written in a highly legalistic style, but this section is written in plain English and covers about everything can will happen to you barring an accident of nature. I would recom-
mend studying this section until it is thoroughly understood.

The principle rules changes are on pages 6-8, and were discussed in this space last fall. You should be able to get a copy of the new rule book at your local pro shop. Carry one in your bag.

Speaking of rules, these are the ones which I see violated most frequently when I'm not playing a club or tournament round (Rules reference in parentheses):

Improving one's lie in the fairway (13-2)
Moving or breaking off branches or growing plants in the way of a stroke (13-2)
Teeing up forward of the tee markers (and another ball must be played) (11-2)
Grounding a club in a hazard (bunker, or inside the red line marking a water hazard) (13-4)
Hitting the wrong ball (15-3)
Conceding putts (not holing out) in stroke play (3-2)

The penalty for the first five violations is two strokes. The penalty for the last one is disqual-
ification. You can't be disqualified from a social round of golf, but you can be prohibited from turning in your score for handicap purposes. Anyway, holing out is the right thing to do because it just is.

My take on the rules? If you're just out there to knock the ball around, who needs rules? But if you keep score for any reason, follow them.

It Pays to Plan Ahead

2012-01-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

Recreational golfers throw away shots every round by not being prepared to play the course. Every shot has options. Choosing the wrong option or the wrong club causes you to play extra strokes that didn't need to be taken.

The best way to prevent this from happening is to make a plan, before you get to the course, for how you're going to play each hole, for better or for worse. The fewer on-the-spot decisions you make the better.

Base your plan around the shots that you hit well. Plan your round to hit those shots as often as you can. Your plan should consist of the club you're going to tee off with and where you're going to hit the ball, and the club you're going to use from the fairway and where you're going to hit it, that is, favoring which side of the green. That might not be the side where the pin is if the price for missing on that side is too high. That's Plan A.

You also need a Plan B, which you pull out if Plan A doesn't work. When you're in trouble is not the time to be thinking. Know ahead of time what you're going to do if you tee off into the trees on the right on #10. Know which club you're going to use and what shot you're going to hit to get the ball back into play. You might have two options prepared, one for when there's a way to advance the ball, and another for when you just have to punch out. Either way, know what you're going to do and how you're going to do it before you ever get to the course.

All eighteen holes should be thought out in advance like this. Plan B is not that hard to figure out, because if you play a course often enough, you know where your misses go and where they don't go.

If you're playing a course for the first time, you can't make plans, so rely heavily on your best shots. Hit them as often as you can and see what happens. As you do, plot out the course by writing down which clubs you would like to use next time and where the safe spots to hit to are. Mark these spots with a felt pen on the course map on the back of the scorecard.

If making detailed plans is not your thing, at least keep a notebook in your bag with a list of clubs you use off the tee, hole by hole, of every course you play. That in itself puts you way ahead of the game.

Better Recreational Golf has more good playing tips. check it out.

The True Beginning of a Golf Stroke

2012-01-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

Whatever you do, it begins in your mind. What we see is the second step.

When we start our swing from a dead stop, there is a lack of connection from the moment just before and the moment of beginning the physical swing. This can cause us to jerk the club away, and, even if ever so gentle, throw us off track. The club can start back on the wrong path, the clubface can turn, we can put tension in our hands and arms, and if any of those things happen, the shot is ruined.

Some players get around this by using a forward press, a slight movement toward the ball that leads rhythmically into the backswing. Still, though, that is a physical correction which gets the body ahead of the mind, and keeps it ahead throughout the swing. The problem has not been solved, only postponed by a fraction of a second.

This is because the stroke started with the movement of the body. It needs to start with the movement of the mind.

The only way to make your best stroke is to get your mind ahead ahead of the body from the start. You do that by creating a feeling of movement in your mind before you move your body in any way. That doesn't mean you should be imagining your club moving away from the ball, or the ball eventually heading for the target. Imagining a physical movement is not it. It is rather a generalized feeling of movement of which the initiation of the swing feels to be merely a physical manifestation.

After your swing gets started, your only task it is to continue this feeling of movement for about a second and a fraction. That doesn't sound like a long time, but is plenty of time for the undisciplined mind to lose control of what it need to do.

The additional benefit of starting your swing like this is that there will be no room in your mind for doubt or worry, the two major reasons why a shot does not come off to the best of your ability. The mind can only think of one thing at a time. If it is occupied on getting the club moving in a natural way, with the mind moving, then the body, there will be no room for any other competing thought.

I will describe one way I practice this feeling and hope that what I say means something to you. Sit in a chair, with good upright posture, and put your forearms out in front of you with your palms facing each other. Pay close attention to what your feeling in mind is as you now swing your hands sideways back and forth. Was there a slight "bump" or shift in your awareness when your hands started moving?

Now set up as before and get a feeling of movement in your mind and concentrate on that feeling continuing. Swing your arms as before. If there was no "bump" in your awareness, that is right. If there was, try again, with a different feeling. Keep working until you can start up your swinging without disturbing your mind. Hint: the less you "try" the easier this is to do.

You can, and should, use this conception of movement on every stroke, from drive to putt.

See Better Recreational Golf for more easy ways to improve your golf.

Goals for 2012

2012-01-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

Even though one day later is the same as any one day later, and we can start on a new path anytime we want to, there is something about turning the page to January 1 that makes a difference. We have had our year-end festivities, from November through December, and then there's January. Thirty-one days of not much going on. So we get introspective and start to think, "Maybe there's a better way." A better way to do whatever it is that's important to you.

If golf is important to you, you'll be setting goals for the coming season. Last year I didn't accomplish much on the course because of my Grand Canyon hike, but I did get a lot done on re-tooling my swing. I also had a putting lesson last month that turned everything around. I can't wait to go out there again and start breaking par.

That probably won't happen, though these things might:

1. Get my grandson real good at this game.
2. Shoot in the 70s consistently instead of once or twice a year.
3. Get my next golf book published.
4. Have more fun.

Each one of them is within reach. I'll keep you posted as the year goes by.

Here's one for you:
Read Better Recreational Golf. It's full of little things that will make a big difference.

Can Hogan Sure-Out Wedges Be Used From the Fairway?

2012-01-01T00:20:00.000-08:00

I like my golf clubs to multi-task. If I can only do one thing with it, then I'm not getting the most out of having it in my bag. For example, I hit my 7-iron ~150 yards from the fairway, I chip with it, and if I need 110 yards under the wind, a half-swing punch does the job.

My #2 hybrid gets played off the tee, from the fairway, and if I need to hit out from trees, a firm chipping stroke keeps the ball very low and sends it yards down the fairway.

So what about the Hogan Sure-Out? This club was designed by the Ben Hogan company to do one thing - get the ball out of a bunker, and it does that job very well. You have to work at it to keep the ball in the bunker, but it does more than that.

See all that metal at the bottom? This is a heavy club, and where you swing it, it will go. Think of being in deep grass, tall weeds, and the like. Think about what they would do to your flimsy gap wedge. They would grab it and yank it around leaving the ball in the weeds and you unwrapping your club. Not the Sure-Out. Every time I have been in this predicament I have used my Sure-Out and it was not denied. It cut through the weeds and got the ball back into the fairway easy as pie.

From the fairway, or just off the green, you have a 56-degree wedge that does not take a back seat to a traditional wedge. I pitch with this club from about 60-75 yards. It's great around the green because the weight means I can make an easy stroke and get a firm hit.

So yes, you can use a Sure-Out from the fairway, and any other place you can imagine.

Getting back to multi-tasking, how about the driver? I haven't figured out a good second shot to hit with it, and if any of you have suggestions, leave your comments below.

Click over to Better Recreational Golf to find more ways to become a versatile golfer.

The Late Hit

2011-12-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

This is one of those phrases that gets amateur golfers into all sorts of trouble. They think that if they can delay the hit, whatever that means to them, and it's almost always the wrong thing, they can hit the ball a real long way.

And more often than not, they try to achieve the late hit by hanging back their right hand as long as they can and then snapping it, and the clubhead, into the ball at the last second. Boy, does that feel good, and yes, you can hit the ball an awful long way the one out of ten times you get it right. That's not what the late hit is, though.

The clubhead is attached to a lever that has two hinges. One hinge is the left shoulder. The other hinge is the left wrist. Lefties, it's the right shoulder and the right wrist. (The left (right) elbow is not a hinge in the golf swing.) If both hinges were allowed to move freely on the downswing, the energy generated by the swinging of the arm would be transferred after a point to the clubshaft, through the wrist. Like a flail, an image you read about from time to time, the energy is multiplied to the tip of the lever, the clubhead, moving it at its maximum speed.

Now here's the thing. The flail, the threshing object, moves in a natural way that can be predicted by conservation of angular momentum. The person swinging the flail can't hit too soon, or the tips will reach the target after maximum speed was built up, and the tips will be slowing down. If the person tries to delay the hit too much, and the only way that can be done is to hold back the swing, maximum speed is never attained. There is only one way of swinging the flail so that maximum angular momentum builds up and is delivered at the right time, and if you were to swing one, it wouldn't take too many tries to find it.

When a golfer tries to hit the ball starting at the beginning of the downswing, that's hitting too early. Power will have peaked before impact. The solution, it seems, is to hold back the right wrist as described earlier, which is just going to the other extreme. Extreme solutions have no place in golf.

The middle way is to let the momentum of the swing build up naturally without forcing it or saving it up for the right moment. Do you ever swing the club back and forth a few times without stopping, completely relaxed, just to get loose, and let the clubhead freewheel through the bottom of the swing? That's what I'm talking about. That's the swing in which the lever-as-flail is operating and in which you are getting maximum clubhead speed through the ball.

Feeling clubhead speed is tricky. You want to feel something moving fast, so you concentrate on what you easily feel, your body and your arms, but they will never move at anywhere near the speed you want the clubhead to be moving. If you want to have a 100-mph swing speed, you don't get it by turning your body at 100 mph (good luck with that, though I play with a few guys who look like that's just what they're trying to do) or by swinging your arms at 100 mph, or by flicking your right wrist at the last moment.

You get that clubhead speed by staying relaxed and letting the hinged lever work naturally. The first few times you get it right it's scary, because the clubhead has never gone that fast before. You might think you did something wrong. Au contraire. You finally did it right.

The only reason anyone ever talks about a late hit is that so many golfers hit too early. The hit that I have described is the on-time hit, and that is the one you need.

For more on this, see The Search For the Perfect Golf Swing, by Cochran and Stobbs.

Better Recreational Golf is something you should look into, as well.

Bettye Danoff (1923-2011)

2011-12-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

Bettye Danoff, one of the thirteen founding members of the L.P.G.A., died on December 22, 2011 at the age of 88. She was a successful amateur golfer, and played exhibition matches with Byron Nelson. She never won on the pro circuit which she played on through the mid-1970s. » LPGA.com » NY Times

Notes from a practice session

2011-12-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

My back is still giving me problems. I can't swing a golf club, but I can chip and putt, so that's what I went to the range to do today. This is what I learned.

1. One of my biggest problems on the green is leaving putts short. If the putt doesn't get to the hole, it will never go in. A putt that finishes six inches in front of the hole might as well have finished two feet in front. My sense of touch leaves the ball short, and I have to live with that. There's no changing it. What I can change is my stroke.

A few weeks ago I talked about Making Putting Easier. There are eight things I do every time I putt. What I have found is, that number 7, Keep the putter low to the ground on the follow-through, gives me the extra oomph I need to get the ball to the hole and a little ways past it. Keeping the putter low after contact helps drive the ball forward more than an arcing stroke does. Try this if leaving putts short is a problem for you. I'll make a video on this when the weather clears up.

2. Becoming a better putter means you will have fewer three-putt greens and more one-putt greens. That much is obvious, but achieving it requires planning. Think about from where you commonly take three putts. Those are the putts you should be practicing. The extra one-putt greens come from those makable 8 to 12-footers that you never make. Those are the putts that steal a stroke when you make them, so practice those.

3. Practice short putts, too, but it isn't your stroke that you should practice. It's how you use your mind. The reason you miss a three-footer is that your mind clutches during the middle of the stroke. You draw the putter back, but sometime during the through-stroke the fear of missing comes into your head in some way and the putter goes off line.

To solve that problem you have to teach yourself how to keep your mind from doing that. Put down a ball nowhere near a hole, and hit the ball four feet. It doesn't matter where the ball goes, or if it goes three feet or five feet. Just make a little putt.

Keep doing this, and pay attention to what's going on in your mind. Since there isn't anything at stake, probably not much. That is the feeling of mind you should have when you hit a four-foot putt for your par. Because you know what that feeling of mind is, you can train your mind to repeat that feeling anytime you want to. Then that fear reaction never comes up because your mind is occupied with something else.

You eliminate the problem of choking short putts by training your mind to stay out of the way when you hit one. I'm serious. You have complete control of this and you can teach yourself to do it. You can train your mind to anything you want it to.

4. I went into the pro shop to give my regards to the pro. He had two Ping irons that a customer had brought in, but only one of them was a Ping. The other one was a fake, and not a very good one at that. If you know what a Ping iron is supposed to look like, it's easy to tell.

He told me that of the three leading brands of irons, if you buy them over the Internet, there is about a 50 percent chance that you'll end up buying a set of counterfeit clubs. Moral: buy your golf clubs from a store or pro shop, not online. It's just too big of a risk.

Or, you can buy 20-year-old clubs like I do. No one was counterfeiting Hogan Apex Red Lines back in 1988, and no one will today.

Did you buy yourself a Christmas present? No? Then click over to Better Recreational Golf and get one that will help you play better golf, guaranteed.

Practice/Playing Emphasis

2011-12-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

When I practice, I spend almost half the time with my driver or 7-iron, almost the other half with my putter, and the remainder, not as much as the first two in comparison, on my short game.

I figure it like this. The better my swing is, the fewer times I'll need to use my short game. And, I'll always be putting. My short game is good, not great. I just need it to be good enough to give my putting a chance.

-----

On The Golf Channel's 7 Nights at the Academy shows that were broadcast last week, Raymond Floyd said the best thing about putting. It went something like, "The Tour is full of wonderful ball-strikers, but a lot of them never win anything because they're mediocre putters."

Byron Nelson said, on one of the old Challenge Golf shows, "If you can drive and you can putt, you can play this game."

See A Paean to Putting for my thoughts.

In Praise of Limitations

2011-12-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, I mentioned that my back was acting up and a full swing is just not in the cards. That's still the case, but yesterday I went out and played nine with my 6-iron, pitching wedge, sand wedge, and putter. It went really well.

There isn't much I can do from tee to green except hit a giant chip, but if I do that, I get a much straighter shot than normal and I don't lose as much distance as you would think. Normally the 6 goes 160 yards, and I got 140 out of it with that less-than-half swing.

All that wedge work is paying off in spades, and I get on the green and close every time. Not exactly one-putt close, but two easy putts and every now and then a makable try.

The thing that is working the best is contact. Contact is all the rage these days. Contact is what counts, and as readers of this space know, it is what I have been working on since a turning-point lesson last April. It is truly amazing what good, solid contact alone can do for you. You feel that solid thump as the ball gets pinched between the ground and the clubface, then you see the satisfying take-off as the ball shoots down the fairway. Or around the green when you think "Oh, no, I hit that one too hard," when all you did is put untold amounts of spin on it and it lands two feet in front of the hole and comes to rest one foot in front.

The divots are things of beauty. They start in front of the ball, are about six inches long, thin, maybe a quarter inch thick at most, and as wide as the clubhead; not a chunk out of the fairway, but a slice of it, just the way it's supposed to be.

I don't care at all that I can't hit the ball very far right now. When the back settles down again, . . . oh, gosh, I can't wait.

"I'm playing 18 today, walking, I don't need a cart. By the way what's the course record here?"

You know, you can order Better Recreational Golf and still get your copy by Christmas.

Make Putting Easier

2011-12-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

They say that however you putt is OK is long as it works. These points make whatever you do easier.

1. Clear your mind of mechanics and results.
2. Align your putter first, step into your stance second.
3. Hold the putter lightly.
4. Your mind begins moving the putter before your body does.
5. Throughout the stroke, the body does not move.
6. Strike the ball with the weight of the putter.
7. Keep the putter low to the ground on the follow-through.
8. Do not look up to follow the ball until a few moments after the ball has been struck. You will not see a six-foot putt go in the hole.

Click to Better Recreational Golf to find more good advice on becoming a better putter.

How Well Should You Putt?

2011-12-16T12:20:00.000-08:00

I picked up some stats from the book, "How Well Should You Putt?" by Clyne Solley. He collected putting statistics from amateurs and pros in the 1970s and published his findings in 1977. These are the number of putts per round for a scratch golfer and a 40-handicapper:

One-putt greens:
Scratch 5.3
40-Hand. 2.4

Two-putt greens:

Scratch 11.7

40-Hand. 11.6

Three-putt greens:

Scratch 0.9

40-Hand. 3.6

This works out to a total number of putts for the scratch player of 31.3 and 36.4 for the 40H.

The one-putt greens for the scratch player are birdie putts primarily of lengths that the 40H player never makes, and the back end of a few up-and-downs. The 40H has many more up-and-down opportunities and still makes fewer of the putts.

The two-putt greens look the same, but they describe very different conditions. The scratch player tends to get on the green from the fairway, and is likely starting to putt from farther away than the 40H who generally gets on the green with a chip. A good number of the 40H's two-putt greens represent the up-and-down that didn't get converted.

The three-putt greens for the 40H are likely sequences that started from distances from which the scratch player routinely gets down in two.

I would bet that the 5.1-stroke gap in total putts would be a lot wider if both players started putting from the same place every time.

Those conclusions are my own, based on how I putt and how I see the golfers I play with putt. It goes to show you that looking just at the number of putts a player makes can cover up serious deficiencies in putting.

To putt better you have to practice. Better Recreational Golf has several practice plans and drills that you can use over the winter to get better.

Working With My Wedges

2011-12-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

Right about now, that's all I can do. I have a back problem that is keeping me from taking a big swing, but I can hit with my wedges. So, I'm practicing them a lot, and the ease with which I have to swing is having surprising results.

I have to have an easy, flowing swing, so I don't hold the club too tightly. It's just a turn to the right, and a turn to the left with soft hands, loose wrists, and loose arms. This is also a great way to practice the release that I have been working on all year.

Last Sunday I hit balls at the range with my son, and just lofted one shot after another right where I was aiming, and with pretty good distance control, too. I hope when my back heals and I can swing fully again that I'll remember these lessons, because I am sure they apply to those shots, too.

But that isn't why I haven't been blogging recently. I'm hard at work to deliver my next book to the editor by the end of the month. The working title is The Golfing Attitude. The first section is about achieving complete concentration during the round and applying that to various situations during the round. The second section is full of playing tips, shotmaking pointers, and good advice for playing your best golf with the skills you have right now. It should be out by March 2012.

The Golf Chanel is in the middle of its second annual 7 Nights At the Academy. It comes on at 7 ET, 4 PT. Not bad, a bit heavy on commercials, though. Johnny Miller is his know-it-all self, but then he does pretty much know that amount, Nick Faldo is trying to tell us everything he knows in the few minutes he has on the air, but Raymond Floyd is the one to listen to. Everything he says is solid. If you haven't read his book, The Elements of Scoring, you should get a copy right away. It's the best book on the mental game I have ever read.

I'll be watching a lot of college football in the next few weeks, I need a break from golf on TV.

You know, Better Recreational Golf makes a great Christmas gift, and the shipping is free. I await your clicks.

A Few Ways to Stop Wasting Strokes

2011-12-09T15:10:00.000-08:00

If you would analyze every round you play, stroke by stroke, I would bet you give away two strokes per side for no good reason. It doesn’t have anything to with how well you hit the ball, but with how well you play the game.

Recovery shots off the tee shot - if your course has heavy rough or lots of trees, you can waste several shots per round just chipping the ball back into the fairway. If you play a tight course, leave your driver home. What you give up in distance is more than offset by keeping the ball in play.

Trying to get it all back with one shot - Say you dumped your drive in a fairway bunker. The green is in sight, but you have to hit a clean shot to get it there. Better to hit out with a shorter club to up near the green, which is an easier shot, so a good chip can give you a par putt. Playing from a hazard as if you were playing from the fairway invites a large score unless you know the shot well.

Playing over water - Bad things happen when you play over water if you don’t have to. Figure the longest club in your bag that you’re sure you can get in the air. If you have to hit a longer club than that to clear the hazard, go around or lay up, unless the course gives you no other option.

Hitting your driver too often - go the the range and set yourself up in a spot where there are landmarks in the distance that mark about a 40-yard-wide fairway. Get warmed up with a short iron, then hit a drive into your "fairway." Take your time, hit one driver, and a few short irons before the next drive. If you got fewer than seven drivers inside the boundaries you picked out, your driver is costing you strokes.

Hitting when you’re not ready - You have to feel that the shot you’re about to hit can only have the best possible outcome. The thrill of anticipation must cover you. If you feel anything about this shot that is off, like something is different, but you don’t know what it is, that’s the little voice telling you to step away because you’re not set up to hit a good shot. Listen to that little voice, for if you don’t, you will find yourself saying in about four seconds, “I knew I wasn’t ready. Why didn’t I step away?”

Playing with the distance you want, not the distance you have - It is true that golf is a distance game. The longer you can hit the ball the easier it is to play well, but you only have the distance you have. That’s the distance to play with. If 155 yards with a 6-iron is a good shot for you, and you’re 153 yards from the pin, don’t hit six! Take out the five and put a smooth swing on the ball. With the six, you’re thinking that you have to hit it just right. The extra club in your hand takes the pressure off and you’ll hit a better shot. Use the right club to get the distance you need, not your swing.

Two short shots in a row - At the professional level, the short shot takes the place of the approach putt. At the amateur level, the short shot is meant to get the ball on the green. Getting the ball close to the pin is a secondary consideration. Whatever it takes, get your first short shot on the green, two-putt close at least. That fourth shot you have to take because your first short shot didn’t get on really hurts.

Not aiming your greenside chips - When the ball is close enough to the green that you truly can give it a run at the hole, aim yourself first. Stand behind the ball to find the line on the ground from the pin to your ball. Align yourself to this line and play away. This avoids hitting your chip hole-high but four feet to the left. If you had taken the time to align the shot, you could have had a tap-in or given the ball a chance to go in.

Ignoring contours around the hole - These are the ones to pay attention to. Where will the ball go when it gets six feet from the hole? When the ball gets that near to the hole, it won’t be rolling very fast, and will thus be greatly influenced by contours.

Find more playing strategies by clicking to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

The Mathematics of Club Selection

2011-12-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

Most golfers try to hit the ball a long way whenever they see the room to. The trouble is, that strategy leads as often as not to poor shots that wouldn't have gained much even if they were successful. Instead, try planning the way you play a golf hole by doing the math.

There's a hole on my home course that is 502 yards long, par 5, with a narrow fairway, and a creek that crosses the fairway about 175 yards from the tee. There is a tree on each side of the fairway, next to the creek, that frames the tee shot and tightens it up even more. There's a lot of room to go wrong with the tee shot, but you can find a way out if you just do a few math problems.

First of all, there are only 175 yards to clear the creek, so take a club that you can hit 190 yards and use that one off the tee. Odds are you hit that club much straighter than your driver, so you will likely end up in the fairway, across the creek, with 312 yards to the green. Divide that yardage by 2. If you hit two shots that are 156 yards long, you'll be on the green.

Say that's two 6-irons. You would also rather not hit something as long a a 6-iron into a green if you can help it, so instead of two 6-irons, hit a 5 and a 7. Or a 4 and an 8. Do you see how this works? All this hole asks you to do is cover 502 yards in three shots. How you do that is up to you. There is more than one way to cover that distance, some of them easy ways, and they don't all start off with a driver.

By the way, the next time you step onto the tee of a 312-yard par 4, you know now that you don't really need to tee off with your driver, don't you?

Here's another example. You tee off from a 386-yard par 4 that runs uphill, and flub the drive. That happens. You're 260 yards from the green now, so out comes the fairway wood. Think about this for a moment. You're still two shots away from the green because you can't hit your fairway wood that far. So divide the distance by 2 and you get two 130-yard shots -- two easy 8-irons. Maybe a 7-iron and a 9-iron, or a 6 and a pitching wedge.

Do the math to take high-risk shot out of your hands, especially when there is no real payoff for hitting them well. If you're worried about what your playing partners will think about you if you keep the longer clubs in the bag, don't be. You'll get more respect from them because you'll be the lone golfer of their acquaintance who actually thinks.

For more easy ways to play better, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

The Golf Course I Like Best

2011-11-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

There was an advertisement that got played a lot during the Presidents Cup matches that pointed to the unchanging size of basketball courts, tennis courts, hockey rinks, etc., but golf courses were all different. Whether golf would be any fun if every course had to be identical is the subject of another post, but I don't like the courses I play on to be too different. These are the things I like in a golf course.

Fairways. I like to have a chance to hit the fairway and not be penalized too much if I miss. The course I play on most is pretty wide open off the tee, but it's long from the whites, so you're going to be hitting driver a lot and the extra space is a nice compensation. A shorter course I play on is tree-lined, and I don't need a driver to play that one. A third course is carved out of the woods, and if you miss the fairway it's lost ball. I usually crack at the pressure of having to hit it straight at about the 14h hole.

Fairways. Flat fairways the whole time get kind of boring, so a few uneven lies are fun because I know how to hit off them. As far as the playing surface goes, the tighter, the better. I don't mind what condition the grass is in, as long as it gets mowed so I don't think I hit it dead center and wound up in rough.

Greens. I like fast greens. That way I can just ease the ball toward the hole. On slower greens, I have to hit the ball harder than I like, and my stroke gets thrown off track. Also, fast greens tend to be true greens. The lowest rounds of my life have all been shot on the same course, and I believe it is because of the condition of the greens let me sink lots of putts that I wouldn't elsewhere. I like greens that are open in front, with good grass, so I can run the ball on if I need to.

Hazards. Bunkers don't bother me. I know how to get out of a greenside bunker, and I don't hit into them very often, anyway. I own the fairway bunker shot. Water is OK within reason. If you spend all day avoiding water off the tee or have to hit more than one heroic shot over water to get to a green, that's too much.

Strategy. I like a course that lets me hit driver and get rewarded for it, or hit a shorter club and still have a good chance to score well. I like a course that lets you pick several ways to the hole instead of forcing just one solution. I like a course that encourages you to play your best instead of playing to avoid your worst.

Layout. I like a course that makes it clear where the next tee is and doesn't put the tees in places so that if you walk off the 6th green you don't find yourself on the 15th tee the first time you play it. It's nice if some of the holes are close together so you can check the pin position of upcoming holes as you walk by. A course should be nice to look at, too. The beautiful surroundings we play in is one of the reasons I like the game.

Unusual shots. There should be one tee shot where if you do something different, like loft a shorter club over trees to cut off a dogleg, you can steal a stroke. I like playing a course where I have to rehearse a special shot during my warm-up because I'm going to use it on the 8th hole, and this is the only course on which I need this shot.

Improvement. I like a course that requires you to get better at certain shots to shoot a better score, and rewards you once you learn how to hit them well, like an 80-yard pitch, or a 2-hybrid from the fairway, or working the ball off the tee.

There isn't one course I play on that has all of this, but the combination of courses I play do. If I missed anything, let me know.

While you're thinking about it, run over to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html and check out the best book for recreational golfers that's on the market today.

Golf Impact in Ultra Slow Motion

2011-11-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a fascinating video of what impact looks like. Notice two things: first, how much the club slows down at impact. A lot of swing speed gets removed when the club meets the ball. It looks like the club doesn't slow down when you see players hit on TV, but I've read that impact removes about 30% of swing speed and this video confirms that number to be in the ball park.

The second thing to notice is what happens to the clubface when the ball is hit off center. Do you see the clubface turning? That's because impact wasn't on the sweet spot. That will affect distance, because some of the energy of impact is being used to rotate the clubface.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dG9hb3_blo (The poster does not allow embedding)

The clubs, in order, are:

Sand wedge
9-iron
7-iron
5-iron
3-iron
Driver
Putter

Notice also with the putter, how the ball slides across the grass rather than rotates? For the first few few of a putt the ball does skid along the ground before it starts turning. You might not think that a putt has trajectory, but it does. The skid you're seeing here is what you want. If you putter face is too lofted at impact, or too delofted, the ball will hop, not skip, and distance will be affected.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html. Really. Click that link.

Being in the Zone

2011-11-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

You hear athletes talk about The Zone all the time and about the two or three times in their career they were in it. You night think this experience is available only to elite athletes, but anyone can get in.

You've been in The Zone many times (OK, I'll stop capitalizing it now). Have you ever had a 20-foot putt that you just knew was going in before you hit it? You felt as good about this one as a 6-inch tap-in? Or an iron that you knew before you hit it would go straight for the pin? That's the zone. You have those moments all the time.

Here's another one. You go to the range, do a bit of stretching to get warmed up, then hit the first ball with your pitching wedge using a lazy, getting-loose swing. The ball takes off right where you were aimed, high, and far -- the best PW you could ever hit and you hit it without thinking about it.

There's the catch. You weren't thinking about it. What it means to be in the zone is that your mind is quiet and the movements you have trained your body to do just come out.

Here's another one. You're on the practice green having indifferent results, and you decide to do something different. It could be anything, like changing your stroke, your grip, your setup, anything. And what happened but you drained three 10-footers in a row, dead center.

Now you thought that this one thing you did was the key to the kingdom, but as soon as you thought that, you started being your old self again. That's because the thing you did differently took your mind off what you had been thinking, and temporarily gave it nothing to think about. You were in the zone. Then, after the third putt, you started thinking about something again, and bye-bye zone.

So that's the zone, which I know you've been in many times, and you know, once it's pointed out to you, what it is. The questions that remain are how to get into it at will, and how to sustain it once you're in. Not so easy to do and not so easy to explain. All I can say is that it takes deep spiritual training which must be continuously renewed. I would recommend visiting a Ki Society training center, which are located in most major population areas around the country. Good luck.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

How To Keep Your Putter's Face Angle Square

2011-11-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

By now, most golfers know that the most important element of the putting stroke is to return the putterface squarely to the ball at impact. Golfers also know that this is difficult to achieve. I would like you to try this tip to see if it doesn't improve your putting in this area. It has to do with your grip.

In the full swing, if your grip is too weak, your hands will return to a more natural position at impact and the clubface will be open. In the same way, if your grip is too strong, your hands will rotate back to a position that closes the clubface.

Even though the putting stroke is relatively much shorter, the same principles apply.

It behooves you to experiment with different placements of your hands on the putter so that your hands return the putterface to the impact point square. It's not very hard to do. A few slow-motion strokes will do it.

When I tried it, I ended up with a fairly strong grip, much stronger than what I use for a full swing. But, given my putting setup and stroke, this grip does the job.

It's a small point, but it might help.

More little things that could make a big difference are found at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

President's Cup - The Royal Melbourne Golf Course

2011-11-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

This year's President's Cup will be played on one of the great golf courses of the world, the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Victoria, Australia.

The course was designed by Alister Mackenzie in 1926, who also designed The Augusta National Golf Club course. There are two courses of eighteen holes each at the club, Mackenzie having designed the East course. Alex Russell designed the West course in 1932. The tournament course is an amalgamation of the two, taking twelve holes from the West, and six holes from the East. For those of you keeping score at home, it works like this:

1 (13) - W1
2 (14) - W2
3 (5) - E3
4 (6) - E4
5 (7) - W5
6 (8) - W6
7 (9) - W7
8 (10) - W10
9 (11) - W11
10 (12) - W12
11 (3) - W17
12 (4) - W18
13 (15) - W3
14 (16) - W4
15 (17) - E9
16 (18) - E16
17 (1) - E17
18 (2) - E18

In former years, the same holes were used, but the routing, shown in parentheses, was different. For example, what is the first hole this week used to be the 13th hole.

Holes of note (current routing) are the fourth, sixth, and seventeenth.

The fourth hole, a 401-yard par 4, requires a blind, uphill drive directly over an imposing array of bunkers on the right. The safe shot into the fairway runs the wrong direction for a shot to the green, and most second shots will be hit from a downhill lie. The green, like all at Royal Melbourne, features subtle slopes that cannot be seen until it is too late. Four is a good score here, and five will be easy to make.

The sixth hole is a very short par 4 - only 285 yards. The catch is that the drive must be hit over an enormous bunker that is built into the side of a hill. A shot out of it will be hit from a level well below the green. The safer angle crosses a valley to a crest at the same level as the tee. Miss the crest and you have a blind pitch into the green.

The seventeenth is a famous hole for its deception from the tee. The fairway is so wide that it's almost impossible to miss, yet unless the ball is put in the right spot, finding a way to get the second shot near the pin will not be easy.

Even though the course is in the middle of an urban area, it has the look of being in the Australian wild. Royal Melbourne is one of the most beautiful courses in the world, I think, for that very reason. I'll be watching the broadcast as much to look at the course as to see the competition.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Simplifying Golf

2011-11-15T07:47:00.000-08:00

Everybody knows that the easiest way to get a good score is to hit the green in regulation. Let me suggest to you an equipment strategy that will help you do that.

I would imagine that you have one club which you like to hit more than any of the others. Whenever you pull this club out of the bag, you know good things are going to happen. If you're smart about it, you will hit that club as often as you can.

Let's say it's your 6-iron, and that you get 160 yards out of it. If that's how far you are from the green, you'll hit it, of course, but if you're 150 yards away, you can grip down and hit from that distance, too. Say it's a par 5, you're 260 yards from the green, and you're playing your second shot. Why not hit the 6? That will put you 100 yards away, which is an easy pitching wedge into the green. And so on.

You should follow a strategy of putting yourself in a position to hit that favorite club as often as possible. Use that one club to get your ball around the course.

Now what if you had four clubs like this, not just one? Four clubs that you knew you could rely on, that you never had to worry about? That would make the game really simple to play. It's the way I play. I practice almost exclusively with my driver, 4-hybrid, 7-iron, and pitching wedge. I try to set up the hole so I can hit one of those three clubs into the green as often as possible.

The 4 goes 180 yards, which covers the longest second shots on a par 4 that I'll have, the 7 goes 150 yards, and the wedge goes 120. That's three clubs to cover a 60-yard interval, each of which is a good friend. It's not that hard to take off distance, so that if I have 160 yards to the hole, I'll still hit the 4. How about 155? OK, I'll use a 6-iron, but for most of the yardages inside that 60-yard interval, it's one of those three clubs.

There's one hole on my home course where this strategy expands and pays off in spades. It's 423 yards long, par 4, dogleg right, with water right and OB left. The landing area for the drive is very narrow. The golfers I play with are happy to walk off the green with a 5, and a 4 is as good as a birdie.

I tee off with a 4 into the fairway, short of where the fairway narrows between the water and OB. I play my second shot with the 4 over the corner of the water hazard and am left with about 35 yards to the pin. I chip on and have a par putt. What could be simpler and safer?

I have committed my game to this four-club strategy and it works great. I have found a way to get the ball into the hole in as few strokes as possible by narrowing down the shots I have to hit to just a select few that I hit very well. Earlier this year I took these four clubs, along with a 2-hybrid, a 54-degree wedge, and a putter, to a course I hadn't played before, and shot 81. Not bad.

If you combine this long game strategy with hitting a selected few short game shots over and over, well, golf isn't that complicated anymore.

See more tips that will shift your paradigm at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Building Your Bag

2011-11-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

There's a current article on the Golf Digest site about how to choose the clubs that go in your bag. With all due respect to Golf Digest, and speaking as someone who plays golf and whose business does not depend on advertising from equipment manufacturers, here are my thoughts.

1. If you're fighting a slice, get a lesson or two, and practice until it's gone. Take responsibility for your own errors instead of asking an adjustable club to fix it for you. While you're at it, take responsibility for your life instead of asking someone else to fix it for you.

2. If you adjust a clubface more open, you deloft the club? OK, I won't argue. Just show me.

3. Adjustable fairway woods. See #1.

4. Brand loyalty. True. When I bought my irons, I tried out eight different brands. Only two felt right. The ones I rejected are played by lots of touring pros, but they weren't the clubs for me.

5. Mongrel clubs. True. Whatever gets the ball in the hole. I have a 56-degree Ben Hogan Sure-Out sand wedge in my bag that gets the ball out of the bunker, gets the ball out of heavy grass (there's a lot of metal down there that will not be denied), and works great from the fairway.

6. Muscleback blades. B***s***. Anyone can hit blades, and I think everyone should. GI irons are a compromise. Blades give you better feel of impact, and have a more rewarding (though smaller) sweet spot. You can play hybrids, 2-5, and blades, 6-PW, and do just fine. The only reason they tell you not to play blades is to get a return on all the money they're pouring into something else.

7. Hybrids. True, true, true. These clubs are so easy to hit it's almost cheating. There's no reason for a recreational golfer to be carrying a 2-, 3-, or 4-iron anymore.

8. Testing short game equipment. Very true. Buy your wedges and putter at a place that has a real green where you can hit balls. A big box store isn't that place. Make sure you test golf balls, too, but that's another article.

9. See #6. They really want you to buy these clubs, don't they?

10. Simple putters. Oh, my. Putters these days look like they came off an alien spaceship. Do get fitted for a putter, but keep it simple. I play an Acushnet Bullseye, made in the early 1960s, and I do just fine.

Four rules about buying equipment:
1. Get it fitted.
2. Every so often, new equipment comes out that truly does make a difference. Hybrid irons, for example. The rest of it is the manufacturers trying to get their hands inside your wallet.
3. A $400 driver = eight lessons. The lessons will take more strokes off your game.
4. In the end, it's the singer, not the song.

This book will take more strokes off your game than that new club you have your eye on, and cost you less than nine holes of golf. www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html

Consistent Chipping

2011-11-12T08:13:00.000-08:00

Those little shots from off the green that you just have to get close, there are several ways to do that. You can learn to hit them all with one club, or you can learn to hit the same shot with different clubs. You can learn to hit different kinds of chip shots, with a different club for each one, and so on. Whatever gives you the most confidence and makes the most sense to you is all right.

The one thing any method depends on is striking the ball the same way every time. Consistent chipping requires consistent contact. That means striking the ball with the same force and with the club contacting the ground on the same spot, relative to where the ball is sitting, every time.

Only when you have these two variables under firm control will your chipping be reliable. This exercise will teach you how.

Take your sand wedge and practice your chipping stroke without a ball in front of you, inside the house and a thin-pile carpet. What you want to do is brush the carpet the same way every time. You monitor this by listening to the sound the club makes when it brushes the carpet - same sound - and watching where the club brushes the pile - same place.

Consistent force is easily achieved by making the backswing the same length and by bringing the club through the ball with the turn of the body, not the swinging of the arms, and for heaven's sake, not the hands.

It will help, too, if you have something specific in mind for the club to do, since there is no ball there. The club has to be aiming for something. What I try to do is slide the sole of the club over the carpet in the same way.

Just swing the club over and over again. It's best to do this for a few minutes, then put the club down and take a 10-minute break. Chip for a few more minutes, stroke after stroke, and take another 10-minute break. If you chip just one time, what you learned will fade away rapidly. By going back several times, after short breaks, you give your mind a chance to retain the feeling of your stroke.

If this is a difficult exercise, there might be two things wrong. First, your stroke might be creating problems. Take a look at the Phil Mickelson short game video. The hinge-and-hold technique that he shows you really works, and isn't hard to learn.

Second, you might be too tense. Tension, trying to guide the club back into the ball, never works. Relax your hands, relax your arms, relax your torso. When you give up trying to control the club, you'll get the control you're looking for.

Mastery requires repetition. Learn a reliable chipping stroke, then do this exercise every day. That's not asking much, and by the time spring rolls around, you will have developed a reliable, repeating chipping stroke.

For more ways to practice golf at home this winter, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

How To Make Short Putts

2011-11-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

From time to time, I put videos on my web site to show you how to hit troublesome shots. Today's video shows you a drill that will help you make short putts, the ones from 2-3 feet that you just can't miss.

I blogged about this over two years ago, but I thought it would be a good idea to show you what the drill looks like. Believe me, it works.

If you do the drill often enough, your mind actually does come to believe that there is a bottle in the hole even though your eyes see that there is not. Your mind taps into the feeling of confidence it has when you practice with the bottle, and you putt with that feeling.

On the course, you could say that there isn't really a bottle there, and in one sense, you're right. But when you have done this drill a number of times, your mind will react to the situation as if there were a bottle in the hole, and that is just as real. What is in your head is much more important than what the objective facts are. If your mind is convinced there is a bottle in the hole, then there is. It doesn't matter what other people would say. If your mind believes it, that's enough.

There's a lot more to golf than training your body. You need to train your mind as well so what you have trained your body to do will be expressed. If you practice this exercise, I think you'll see that I'm right about that.

Go to the source. Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Joe Paterno Must Resign

2011-11-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

I know, this is a golf blog. It's also my portal to the world. Events have come to light in the past few days that require me to add my voice to what is already being said. Among other people in the program, Joe Paterno must step down as head coach of the Penn State football team and become permanently dissociated from it.

If it hasn't caught your attention by now, the story is that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with 40 counts of child molestation involving eight children between the ages of 10 to 13, roughly between the years 1994 through 2009. Read the grand jury report.

Where Paterno comes in is that according to the report, Sandusky was seen by a graduate assistant on the football team having oral sex with a boy in the shower room of the Penn State football facility. The assistant reported the incident to Paterno, who reported it to his superior. Paterno, having discharged his legal duty, did nothing more.

And this was not the first time that Sandusky had been caught in the PSU showers sexually abusing a child. Paterno knew that allegations had been made about Sandusky earlier and that did not ring a bell in his head when this incident was brought to him by a graduate assistant in 2002.

Paterno says he acted appropriately. Yes, he did. He made the report that he was legally obligated to make. That was the appropriate part. But that was it. He did nothing further, like immediately terminating all of Sandusky's access privileges from the university's football facility. Like calling law enforcement officials. Like doing whatever he could to protect the boy from further assaults. Like protecting boys who Sandusky might prey upon in the future.

There was a suspected pedophile in his midst and Paterno did nothing. Don't think he couldn't have, either. He has free reign at PSU. Nothing goes on in any aspect of the football program without his OK.

Penn State is now circling the wagons, trying to limit the damage to Sandusky alone, even though two university officials have been charged in the matter for failing to notify law enforcement officials and lying to a grand jury. It's hard to admit fault, because that admits guilt, and that leads to lawsuits. There will likely be lawsuits anyway.

It's easy to say we really didn't know, we did all we could have done anyway. That's the university's line, and that's Paterno's line. But you did know, and you didn't do all you could have done. Not by a long shot.

If Joe Paterno has a shred of decency in him, he will resign, immediately, in penance for failing to act and for continuing to allow a suspected pedophile full access to an environment where he could continue to groom victims and assault them.

And he should resign today. If he has a shred of decency in him.

A Few Golf Rules Simplified

2011-11-04T08:11:00.001-07:00

No one expects you to know all the rules of golf, but there are a few that the golfers I play with seem to get tripped up on most often, or just don't know. Here are some confusing procedures simplified, with the rule book reference in parentheses.

Sometimes you get to pick up your ball and drop it in another spot, either one club-length or two club-lengths from where it lies. Drop it one club-length away, but not nearer to the hole, in the case of a ball:
- on or near an immovable obstruction (commonly, a cart path) (24-2)
- interfered with by an abnormal ground condition (25-1)
- on the wrong putting green (25-3)

You get to drop two club-lengths away when the ball is:
- in a water hazard (26)
- in an unplayable lie (28)
Note that in these two circumstances there are other options for relief.

There are lots of one-stroke penalties, most of which cover rare occurrences. The most common ones, though, are these:

- while taking relief from a ball in a water hazard (26)

- while taking relief from an unplayable lie (28)

- accidentally moving the ball when not making a stroke (and the ball must be replaced) (18)

- lost ball or ball out of bounds (also incurs loss of distance) (27)

- lifting a ball to identify it when not necessary to do so (12-2)

Pretty much everything else you are likely to run across is a two-stroke penalty, including these things which you see all the time in recreational golf:

- improving one's lie in the fairway (13-2)

- moving or breaking off branches or plants (immovable obstructions) that are in the way of the ball or the player's stance (Definitions; 24 Exception)

- teeing up forward of the tee markers (and another ball must be played) (11-2)

- grounding the club in a bunker (13-4)

- hitting a putt on the putting green which strikes a fellow player's ball that is also on the putting green (19-5)

- hitting the wrong ball (15-3)

If you just want to knock the ball around, who cares about the rules? But if you're writing down scores, it's best to follow them.

For rules of playing well, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

First Golfing Memories

2011-11-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up, there was a set of golf clubs in the basement. There was a steel-shafted wood of come kind, and several irons with wooden shafts. I don't really remember much more than that, but I do remember that they fascinated me.

They belonged to my father (they had, too, my mother was tennis player, and a good one), but he never played. He must have played when he was younger, but like so many men do, when his family started, along with that and his job and his avocations, there was no time for golf. But the clubs were there.

There was a heavy canvas shag bag, too, along with a few of the old-style balls that had dimple patterns that ran at right angles to each other, very orderly.

When I got my first set of clubs, the one that I liked the most was the 9-iron. Maybe it was the shape of the numeral on the sole of the club (an early fascination with typography that continues to this day), I don't know. The other clubs were golf clubs, but my 9-iron was Golf. I had a dozen Wilson golf balls, Jim Ferrier model. Later I became a big Maxfli fan, because their ball logo was a colored dot with a circle around it. I went for the green-dot versions in a big way. Even today, I mark my golf ball with one green dot.

I had a book, too, called Play It Pro, Golf from Beginner to Winner, put out by Wilson Sporting Goods. It's a slim paperback, only 66 pages long, that takes you through equipment, how to swing, chip, putt, get out of sand, and so forth, along with a bit on professional golf. I still have the book, and there is a chart in the back where you could enter your scores. My first time breaking 100 is marked on that chart, when I was trying out for the high school golf team at about age 15.

I took group lessons when I was nine or ten, at a driving range that had a par 3 course attached. I thought it was really easy. The pro said to do This, so I did This and it worked. I couldn't figure out why no one else was doing what he said to do.

We couldn't afford too many lessons after that, nor too many rounds of golf, but I did get some plastic balls and hit them all the time in front of my house during the summer. There weren't many kids in my neighborhood, so I didn't have anything else to do.

The telephone wire into our house ran about twelve feet above the ground and just in front of the spot where I would hit from. I would take a real golf ball and see how close I could get to the wire and still be able to pitch a ball over it. I could get pretty close. Getting a short shot in the air in a hurry is still pretty easy for me, because of that.

My father took me to my first professional golf tournament, the Portland Open Invitational, when I was ten. What I remember most is watching the players warm up on the range. In those days, the pros had to bring their own range balls, so their caddies were all down-range picking up the balls that their pro hit to them. Right to them. I couldn't believe what I was seeing that someone could hit the ball that straight time after time.

One more memory before I go, which I have to, lest this essay turn into a volume. I was about eleven years old when my father and I went to see Patty Berg give a clinic on the 10th fairway of our local golf course. There wasn't a lot of money to be made on the LPGA tour back then, and this is how she made her living. It was amazing the amount of control she had over the ball and how it did exactly what she said it would do. I got her autograph, and I still have that, too.

I would tell you about the day I got Arnold Palmer's autograph, but that's post in itself. Soon.

Uneven Lies - Not a Problem Anymore

2011-11-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

One of the hallmarks of a competent golfer is that the course cannot present a problem for which the golfer has no solution. Four of the basic problems come from uneven lies. These lies can throw you off completely and require adjustments in stance, ball placement, and swing.

Fortunately, I have the answers for you, which I have been uploading to my web site over the past few weeks. They had to go there because YouTube was being a bit cranky about letting me upload to their site, but now they're behaving themselves, so up went these videos.

After you finish watching Bananarama videos (More, More, More is especially hot), you can dial up TRG and see how to hit these troublesome shots.

So here they are - easy solutions for difficult lies.

Ball above your feet:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=848rEBbzg1c

Ball below your feet:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ror8dKP8KaM

Uphill lie:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTCi8K9rUsE

Downhill lie:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i_hGoy2HTo

More golf basics are yours at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Winter Golf

2011-10-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

For those of use who live in the North, the onset of foul weather means that a round of golf will be an occasional event from now until March or so. There is a clear divide between golfing seasons. To get ready for the next season, I would suggest that you practice, and practice the money shots. They are:

1. Your driver. Get a lesson instead of just banging away at the range, repeating the same mistakes over and over. This is a hard club to hit well. Only with expert guidance can you hope to master it.
2. Your 7-iron. This is a middling club which if you can hit well, you should be able to hit all your other irons well, too. The goal is to hit it straight. No one besides you cares how far you hit it. Straight, straight, straight.
3. The pitch/chip from 5-25 yards away from the pin. I'll bet you hit from here at least six or seven times per round. If you can get three-quarters of those shots up and down, that will knock a lot of strokes off your score.
4. The 30-foot putt. This is the distance from which three-putt greens are born. Learn to get these putts kick-in close.

Do some mental work, too.

1. Before every ball you hit at the range, give yourself a target on the ground that you want to hit the ball to. A direction alone isn't good enough. There needs to be a spot in the ground you are trying to hit, just like when you play.
2. See the shot you want to hit and feel it coming back to you and the feeling of hitting that shoot infusing itself in your mind and body. Then go through your pre-shot routine: grip, stance, posture, alignment. Hit the shot and watch the ball all the way, good or bad. Be unconcerned about the result, good or bad, especially bad. Learn to let your bad shots go without comment or judgement. That will help you keep a level head when you play, and you learn how to do that when you practice.
3. If you get a chance to play, I would suggest playing a practice round. Drop balls where you get a chance to hit the shots you have been practicing, but here's the catch: you only get to hit the ball once. No dropping ball after ball until you get it right. That's for the practice ground. You might have practiced this shot for hours, but what happens when you have this shot on the course and you have only one chance to get it right? That's your mind, and learning to get that part of the game right could make a bigger difference in letting your true talents emerge than just hitting more balls.

Finally, click over to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html. With the advice you'll find there coupled with this winter practice program, you'll lower your handicap by twenty percent next season. No kidding!

Rules Changes for 2012

2011-10-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

The R&A and the USGA completed their quadrennial review of the rules, and yesterday announced rules changes for 2012 through 2015. There is nothing major, it's still golf, but the biggest news is that two of the more maddening penalties have been eliminated.

Currently, a player has addressed the ball by taking a stance and grounding the club behind the ball. If the ball moves after this has been done, even though the player was not making a stroke, the movement is assumed to have been caused by the player. The ball must replaced and a one-stroke penalty is assessed.

The new rule eliminates this penalty if "it is known or virtually certain that he did not cause the ball to move." What we have seen several times this year in professional tournaments is the ball moving on a windy day after a player addressed the ball on the putting green. Several years ago there was a controversy concerning whether Scott Verplank's ball had even moved after he addressed it in the rough. Penalties were assessed in all cases.

Starting in 2012, if outside forces cause the ball to move after you have addressed it, there is no penalty, and the ball is played from its new position.

The second penalty change concerns raking bunkers. Under current rules, raking a bunker before a shot has been made is considered to be testing the sand and incurs a two-stroke penalty. In the future, if pre-shot raking is for the purpose of maintaining the course and has no affect on the shot, there is no penalty.

Say your ball is in a bunker and the rake is in the bunker, too, but at some distance from your ball. You have to go into the bunker to get the rake, exit, then go in again to hit your ball. The problem is that you have two sets of footprints to rake.

Under current rules, you would have to hit the ball before you rake either set of footprints. Under the new rule, you could rake the first set with no penalty. This will speed up play somewhat. Of concern, though, is the player who always seems to be raking the bunker somewhere before he hits his shot.

In addition, there are seven other minor rules changes, and then there are the Decisions. These are the enormous number of rulings on situations that happen once per career, but require clarification anyway. The Decisions book is over 400 pages long.

There are 17 new decisions, three renumbered decisions, 22 major revised decisions, 53 minor revised decisions, and 35 withdrawn decisions. I'll leave you to your own research one those.

To read more go the R&A rules page.

One thing that never changes are the principles of good golf. You'll find them at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Maybe This Tip Will Work For You

2011-10-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

I was reading through the late George Knudson's book, The Natural Golf Swing, and noticed this tip, which I hadn't before. Knudson was a Canadian who played on the PGA Tour in the 1970s and had one of the best swings the Tour has ever seen.

Knudson said that early in his development as a professional he would always hit his driver on the heel of the club, breaking the wood on that side and hitting "these ugly little shots."

"One day, I decided to try to catch the ball way out on the toe of the driver. I set up the ball on the toe and figured that's where I would make contact, It wasn't the sweet spot, but setting the ball up on the sweet spot hadn't been doing me any good either. So what happens? I hit this thing and it files off the club like a rocket compared to what I'd been doing.

"...suddenly, after setting the ball up on the toe, the ball was coming off the face solidly. I decided that the clubhead must be pulling out, and accepted that. ... I didn't know that I was suddenly catching the ball in the centre of the clubface because of the centrifugal force that was pulling the clubhead out and down."

What Knudson is getting at is that the centrifugal force of the swing pulls your arms and they straighten out a bit - they get longer. When they carry the club into the ball, longer, the center of the clubface will be lined up with the ball.

I of course had to run out and try this in my backyard, and it worked great. Then I played nine holes yesterday and every time I remembered to do it, it worked. I got a nice, flush hit, and good distance without any effort at all. The key to distance is a centered hit, and this is a great way to get one. And straight? Are you kidding? That's all I hit!

Now I give you this tip with a reservation, because it might not work for you. I try to put up tips that will work for anyone. This one did fine with my swing, but it might be swing-specific, so I don't know about yours. So give it an honest try and if it works, say Thank You to George. If it doesn't, oh, well . . .

One thing that will work with anyone is the information in Better Recreational Golf. Go on, take a look.

What Your Practice Swing is For

2011-10-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

I put "practice swing" in the title because that's what everyone calls it, but a better name for it is a reminder swing. You're reminding yourself of how you want your swing to feel, and hopefully you can step up to the ball and copy that very swing.

The other thing you're reminding yourself of, and this is even more important, is to stay calm and just let the shot take care of itself. You've programmed distance, direction, shot shape, trajectory, all that, into your subconscious mind. That part's done. Now just let it all go and remind yourself how to swing with a mind that isn't all balled up in calculation, and is unconcerned about results.

Let me point out that the feeling of how your body should move through the swing and the feeling of swinging with a calm mind are one feeling, not two. The mind and the body operate as a package. Use your reminder swing to remind yourself of that.

The reminder swing is also a lie detector. If for some reason this doesn't work, in that your mind just won't settle down when you take your reminder swing, it's a sign that you have picked the wrong shot, the wrong destination, or are using the wrong club. Your conscious mind can talk you into anything, but your subconscious mind knows the truth. Step back, look again on a subconscious level, without analyzing, and let what you see tell you what to do. Then make the change you need to make.

Your subconscious mind also knows that it's time to get your copy of Better Recreational Golf. So what are you waiting for?

The 20-Hole Golf Course

2011-10-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

This morning my wife and I talked about going up to Portland so she could go shopping. Fortunately for me, there's a golf course less than a half mile from the mall, so I said Sure, you shop and I'll hit balls. She said, Can you hit balls for two hours, and I said, I can do that.

Spending two hours at the range is pretty easy for me. I can spend about 45 minutes hitting a bucket, then the rest of the time around the green. But what about this?

I practice for about an hour and a half, then play two holes. Wouldn't that be great? The first tee, seventh green, eighth tee, and ninth green at this course are all in a line right by the clubhouse. I could go over to the eighth tee, play away, then play back on the ninth hole. A little practice, a little play. What could be better?

Except that I can't do that. There are people playing their round, and you can't squeeze the odd single in the middle of the groups going nine or eighteen. Then the brainstorm hit me. Build a 20-hole golf course. Eighteen holes for play, two holes for practice.

After you practice something, you want to try it out. Why not? That validates it, or tells you it works on the range, but not in play, so back to the drawing board. And not even that. We practice to play golf, we don't just practice golf. So why not cap off a practice session with a few holes? It would make practicing a lot more fun.

Another reason you would want to have practice holes is that golf is not about hitting shots. It's a game you play. I don't know how many times I could have broken 80 if I had thought better about hitting four or five shots. Not hit better shots, but hit the right shot or used the right club. Part of getting better is learning how to play, how to think your way around the course. Why not make that part of your practice?

All we have to do now is convince a designer to build two extra holes. I think it would be a big hit. One, it would make a great practice ground, like I said. Two, it would be great for playing lessons. (Have you ever had a playing lesson, by the way? They are the best lessons I have ever had.) Three, if you didn't have time for nine, you could warm up and play these two. I can't but imagine those two holes would booked up solid, generate a lot of revenue for the course operators, and get lots of people interested in the game.

What do you think?

How Many Wedges Should You Carry?

2011-10-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

If you can hit the ball reasonably well from tee to green, most of your handicap is built from 30 yards and in. In order to hit the variety of short shots you are faced with, and hit them well, you have to have the right talent, but also the right clubs.

Which clubs you really need to hit to save strokes from close in is a question each golfer should ask and answer.

Everybody has a pitching wedge and a sand wedge. The question is whether to add a gap wedge of 52-54 degrees and/or a lob wedge of 58-60 degrees.

The answer depends on what short shots you hit most often from that close-in range. I would guess that you have a lot of chips from more than 10 yards or so off the green. If so, you'll hit them the best with a gap wedge. That club has enough loft to get the ball over the fairway and landing on the green, but with enough spin to stop quickly.

The sand wedge would do the same thing, so why not use it? Two reasons. First, the more loft there is on a club, the greater the risk there is of not getting the flange underneath the ball. That's a mis-hit that sends the ball scooting across the green. Second, the short game is built around finesse, which means that you should strive to hit the ball just hard enough and no harder. The extra loft of the sand wedge gets the ball higher in the air, so you have to hit the ball harder than you might like for it to cover the same distance as the gap wedge would.

Then there's the lob wedge, the sexiest club in the bag, but for many golfers, the least useful. There was a Playing Lessons show on The Golf Channel with Jim Thorpe, in which he said the lob wedge is used to get the ball over something, like a mound or to the top of a bank. He didn't recommend it for anything else, and I agree. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have this club, but ask yourself how often you would use it.

Long-range pitching? I know the Dave Pelz champions the four wedges-three swings method of calibrating your pitching game, but really, who has the time to practice all that, and in my experience, two wedges can fill in all those gaps if you learn marry the club with your feel for distance. Personally, I find a rigid calibration of clubs and distances to hinder rather than help my short game.

I have three wedges: a pitching wedge (48), a gap wedge (52) and a sand wedge (56). These three clubs take care of every shot I would need a lofted club for, and each one has an assigned role so I don't get confused about which one to use.

This era is all about choice. More choices, though, after a point, are not helpful. Put additional wedges in your bag only if there is a real need for them. Otherwise, keep it simple.

Speaking of simple, find simple ways to play good golf at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Just Play Golf

2011-10-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

A while ago I read a piece about what professional athletes think about when they're competing. They go through drills, plays, teamwork exercises, and all of that in practice. They learn everything they can about what might come up during a game and what they should do when it happens. That needs to be in their head. Actual play, though, is different.

John Stockton, the legendary point guard for the Utah Jazz, when asked about how he analyzes what's going on during a game so he can take advantage of how he had prepared himself, said, "I never think about that stuff. I just play basketball."

This is what everybody keeps telling us as golfers, and it's what we find so hard to do. Stop thinking about your swing technique, and just hit the ball. Stop running through your repertoire of shots. Look at what's facing you and hit the shot it calls for.

Just play golf. All of what you have practiced and learned is in there. Let it come out on its own.

For example, you're on the tee and, of course, you want to put the ball in the fairway. Instead of thinking about your swing technique that you know makes you hit the ball straight, see where you want the ball to go and let your subconscious mind take over. That's the mind you can't have a conversation with, the one that doesn't talk to you.

Look at the shot, get connected to the shot, and hit it. That's all there is to it. That's what happens when I play well. There's no reason, if you discipline your mind, why that can't happen every time you play, and on every shot.

The philosopher Krishnamurti said that life is complex, but it must be lived as if it were simple. Golf is the same way. Get the complexities worked out during practice. On the course, keep it simple. Just play golf.

You can find more ways to make golf simple at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

How to Master the Short Game

2011-10-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

The short game is the most difficult part of golf. Every shot is different. The lie is different, the distance is different, the ground you have to carry is different; you will never hit the same shot twice. Yet, you can master this part of the game and keep your score down where it belongs.

The key is to have a few shots, that you hit with a few clubs, and work them to death. Perfect a few basic shots with one or two clubs for each one so you know exactly how the ball will respond. That way you never have to guess or try something you have never done before.

In the Boy Scouts' Golf Merit Badge booklet, of all places, there's an article by Julius Boros saying how he won two U.S. Opens and a P.G.A. with three basic short game shots. He advocates that weekend players build their short game the same way.

Those shots are the chip with a 6-iron, a sand wedge shot from heavy grass close to the green, and a pitching wedge shot off the fairway from about 30 yards or less. These are the shots that you can get close enough to the hole for one putt.

I have mentioned in this space before about the importance of the short game from close in. Seriously. The next time you go to the range, take these three clubs and spend twenty minutes with each one learning how to hit the shot it gets used for. (I might swap the pitching wedge for a gap wedge for the 30-yarder.) A better idea would be to take a lesson in how to hit those shots. Better still, get three lessons, one for each shot.

More than ninety percent of your short shots will be covered by these three shots. Yes, there's sand, and the pitch from 50-100 yards, but do you expect to get up and down? Probably not. All you need to know is how to get out of a bunker so you can start putting. All your pitch needs to do is land on the green. It's not surprising how few people can do even those two things.

Once you're close, though, pride yourself in being deadly. One chip, one putt, done. You learn how to do that by keeping it simple. Three shots, three clubs, over and over and over.

Spend your time learning that. You master the short game by learning to do a few things exceedingly well.

For more detail on hitting these shots, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

A Round of Golf Analyzed

2011-10-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

I've written before about analyzing your round stroke by stroke in order to learn how to make better shot selection decisions, and to identify which strokes need work next time you go the range. Here's my latest round analyzed, with par in parentheses.

1. (4) 2H, 9i, sand, putt, putt. Hit the 9i thin, first iron shot of the day is always difficult. Think about the destination, not the task.

2. (4) Driver, 8i, putt, putt.

3. (3) 8i, chip (30 yds.), putt, putt, putt. First putt went way past the hole. The greens are faster than they look.

4. (5) 4H, 4H, 7i, putt, putt. Par 5, no need to try for too much off the tee.

5. (5) 2H, 2H, 6i, chip (30 yds), putt. Hit both the 2H pretty poorly. 8i chip didn't get in the air enough - clipped a mound. ~35-foot putt.

6. (3) 9i, chip (10 yds), putt, putt. Pin in front, eased off on the 9 too much. Get on the green, beyond the flag is OK. Hit the chip more firmly. As with the 9i, past the flag is OK.

7. (4) 6i (there's a ravine you have to lay up to), 3i, chip, putt, putt.

8. (3) 7i right, putt, putt.

9. (5) 2H right, 4H (sand), 9i right, chip left (15 yds), putt, putt. 9i - alignment issue that would keep showing up for a few more holes; chip - align, align, align!

10. (4) Driver right, 9i, putt, putt.

11. (5) 2H right, 4H, PW, putt, putt.

12. (4) Driver, 4H, 4H, chip (30 yds), putt, putt. Hit the driver and the first 4H very thin. The chip was way to tentative.

13. (3) 6i, putt, putt, putt. First putt was downhill and to the right, played far too much break. Second putt from four feet played outside the hole and it stayed outside. Don't give away the hole!

14. (5) 2H, 4H, PW, putt, putt.

15. (4) Driver (duck hook), 5H (sand), pitch, chip (20 yds), putt, putt. 5H - went for the green, should have played a 7i to the front of the green. Hit the pitch real fat - that happens.

16. (4) Driver, 3H right, sand, putt. I would have taken a bogey, but a ~30-foot putt went in.

17. (3) 7i, chip (6 yds), putt, putt. 7i was long, and a 6i chip out of the rough was tentative. Should have chipped with a PW, but should have hit an 8i off the tee, which I had thought of. Short would have still been on the green.

18. (4) Driver, 6i, putt, putt.

There are a normal amount of lucky shots and ones that I should have hit better, but the parts that stand out are the playing errors. On 1, I was worried about making clean contact. Just hit the ball. (More on that in a coming post.) On 6, I had enough club in my hand, but played it too fine. No. 9 -align the chip! This one finished hole high - exact distance, six feet to the left. On 13, I over-analyzed the first two putts. On 15, I chose the wrong shot out of the bunker. On 17, I chose a club to chip with that did not give me confidence.

Could you say that I gave away six shots because or poor thinking? Yes, you could. Also, those intermediate-length chips need work, too. They all ended up short. I might have gotten one stroke back, maybe two, by being better with that shot.

So you see that there are seven or eight shots that I could have saved, and there's no reason why I can't learn to get them. If this is a typical round for you as well, let's both lower our score by thinking better so that all the work we do at the range finally pays off.

That chip on 16? I went to the range yesterday and figured out how to hit it with a gap wedge. Problem solved.

Perhaps, no, not perhaps, but really, your score could go down just by learning how to play the game and make better decisions. I've been writing these tips for two years now. If this is the only one you pay attention to, that would make me happy.

It would also make me happy if you would go to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html and click a button or two.

Curving the Ball to the Left or the Right

2011-10-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last month I discussed the reasons why the golf ball curves. This impact geometry needs to be clearly understood by every golfer. Only then can swing problems be corrected, and can a golfer curve the ball at will to advantage.

Let us review. The direction the clubface faces at impact is the major determinant of the initial direction the golf ball starts along. The ball will curve if the clubface is not square to the path the clubhead is moving along at impact.

To fade the ball:

Set up (small oval) to the left of the target (point A).
Open the clubface so it faces between point A and the target (point T) (dotted line).
Swing normally toward point A.

The ball will start right and curve further right.

To draw the ball:

Set up (small oval) square to the target (point T).
Pick a spot to the right of the target (point A).
Open the clubface so it faces between points A and T (dotted line).
Swing into the ball from the inside out toward point A.

The ball will start right and curve left. Even though the clubface is open, if it is closed to the club path, the ball will draw. This push-draw is easy to hit and gets the ball in the air. It avoids the risk of smothering the ball, which might happen if the clubface is closed at address to create the draw spin.

These drawings demonstrate relationships. They do not show the actual
amount of adjustment necessary. That must be determined by your own
experimentation.

I also assume that you have a reasonable command of hitting the ball straight. These corrections won't work if you always curve the ball one way or the other as a normal shot.

These corrections to your setup and swing are tiny ones. The clubface needs to be opened only two or three degrees. That isn't very much. The inside-to-out swing for the draw does not need to be exaggerated. You must experiment with the variables for both shots to determine how much of an adjustment you need.

These shots are not to be hit for the asking. You must practice them. Hit ten balls each way every time you go to the range.

More tips for better golf can be found at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

A Simple Putting Tip or Three

2011-10-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

About five years ago, I had a streak of 48 consecutive holes without a three-putt green. Now unfortunately, I like to play around with golf and go astray from what works. That's why I write down what I'm doing when things go well so I can always go back to it.

What I was doing then, and I can't for the life of me figure out why I ever stop doing it, it this:

My upper arms rest firmly, but not tightly, against my torso.

This does several good things:
- my hands get taken out of the stroke
- my arms don't wander
- I stay relaxed, since it's the big muscles that are moving the putter.

Two other fine points that seem to make a big difference are:

I keep the putter low to the ground on the follow-through.

I don't look up with my head or my eyes to follow the ball for about two seconds after the ball has been struck.

I believe that if you try these three things, which can be installed in your putting game in a few minutes at most, you will putt better.

More little things that make a big difference can be found at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Hitting With the Right Side

2011-10-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Two words about this: do it. If you play golf left-handed, then hit with your left side. Hit hard from the side that's behind the ball. That's where your power comes from.

The catch is that you can't hit too soon. If you do, your power will run out by the time the clubhead gets to the ball, and the accuracy of the delivery will be affected for the worse.

Another way of saying this is, hitting hard doesn't mean rushing your swing at any time, especially at the last moment. Maintain your tempo and rhythm throughout the swing.

You hit hard by doing this:

Once you are set at the top, swing down with your body, keeping your hands and arms where they are, as if they were in a body cast.

When your hands get to hip height, now you can start thinking about hitting the ball with the palm of your right hand (except that the clubhead is standing in for your hand).

Hit the ball as hard as you want to WITHOUT RUSHING THROUGH THE BALL.

That's it.

You might have heard that the left hand and arm is the key. It's as if you were beating a hanging rug with a carpet beater. You wouldn't swing the beater back-handed. You'd use the hand farthest from the rug, and at the last moment only, pour on the juice.

The forward side of the swing acts as a guide. It's not a power source.

See more tips that work at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Getting Back to Golf

2011-10-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

I spent the summer getting in condition for a hike across the Grand Canyon -- down from the north rim and out to the south rim. I made this same hike three years ago, and tried to play golf as well while getting in shape. The problem was, that the conditioning hikes made my legs too tired to play good golf, and playing golf didn't let me rest between conditioning hikes. So golf went out this year.

My wife and I made the hike last week, and it's now time to start playing again. I spent most of September at the driving range getting my swing back in shape, and also re-learning how to chip and putt. I was also having real trouble getting my driver off the ground, which is when I hauled out my old 2-wood and began getting the air that I was missing.

I have always thought that if you can hit the ball straight and you can putt, then you can score. So that's what I'm working on mostly at the range. We have about one month of good weather for golf left in western Oregon, and I intend to take good advantage of it.

I was still hitting slap hooks, though, a problem that has plagued me for years. I finally found a solution, I think, by noticing that when I stopped at impact, my right elbow was sticking out. Sure enough this closes the clubface dramatically. Johnny Miller has a video called Johnny Miller's Fixing Your Swing Golf Clinic, in which each section is about how to fix a particular ball flight flaw. Whenever something goes wrong, I watch this video and the solution is right there. In the hook section, he pointed out that if your right elbow comes out, you'll close the clubface and hit those slappy hooks. That's good enough confirmation for me.

So I'm working on keeping my right elbow tucked against my right side as the club comes into the ball. This is new, and as with everything new, it's hard to practice a new thing without either overdoing it or forgetting everything else that I'm doing right.

You might think that by not playing golf that this was a lost year golfing-wise for me, but remember that in May I got started learning how to release the club through the ball, and now I have figured out about the right elbow. This could end up as my best year yet.

There's still time to make this your best year yet. Go to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

A Desert Golf Course

2011-10-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

I got back from my vacation to the Southwest yesterday. My wife and I hiked across the Grand Canyon, from the north rim to the south rim, in two and a half days. We had a wonderful time. What made it even better was playing golf in the midst of the desert, not at a resort course, but at an executive course in the heart of the Colorado Plateau.

It's called the Thunderbird Golf Course, and it sits at the intersection of highways 9 and 89, between Kanab, Utah, and Zion National Park, in a place called Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah. The course is 1,868 yards long from the whites, par 31. The course record is 24, I asked. This is not a destination, believe me. You would have to be there for another reason.

I seem to be going there every few years. I had passed by the place three times in the last ten years, and each time I really regretted having to keep going. On this trip I decided to schedule some time to play.

From the first tee, you get the feeling of where you are from the brown road sign you won't see in many other places. It says, "Grand Canyon National Park 101." My wife thinks the policeman must get a kick out of watching golfers while he waits for speeders to come by.

Below, I'm going for the green. You don't get this background in many places, either. Those formations in the distance are at least 2,000 feet above the surrounding plain.

It took about an hour to play. I had one birdie and a few pars. Not bad for still being in recovery from two quite strenuous hikes in the past three days.

The best part is that the green fees, club rental, and cart all came to $20.

Now that the hike I had been preparing myself for all summer is over, I can start devoting myself to golf again. Life is good.

Life is better when you play good golf, which you can do at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

The One Mental Skill For Golfers

2011-10-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

So much is said about the mental game these days, but I have read all the books and none of them get to the real point. The real point is to calm your mind and not let outside influences disturb it. That's it. It is the only mental skill you need. If you can do that, everything else is an application of that simple principle.

Remember the time when you were looking into the green with a 7-iron in your hand and you knew, just knew, that the shot would be sweet and the ball would land close to the hole, and it did? You didn't think about swing technique, or what could go wrong, or what you wanted to happen, you just hit the shot. Nothing else. That is what I mean by having a calm mind.

There are techniques that teach you to calm your mind at will, but they require personal instruction and steady practice on your part over time. This is not something easily gained. By knowing what a calm mind is, though, and you do, you can practice attaining it in every phase of your life so that whenever you need it, on the golf course, or on the job, at home, conducting personal business, it's there for you.

But this blog is about golf, so let me give you a few ways you can apply the calm mind on the course.

First, look at the shot you have to hit. Unless you face a shot with forced carry over a hazard of some kind, you can hit the ball any place you choose, right or left, short or long, or dead center. It's your choice. You've played long enough to know that some choices are better than others. Looking at the shot with a calm mind will help you pick the right one -- the one with the greatest chance of success in taking the next step in getting the ball in the hole as quickly as you can.

Second, you have to hit the shot without thinking of all the things I mentioned before. Take a practice swing, but let's call it a rehearsal swing instead. Then step up to the ball and concentrate only on repeating the feeling of what that rehearsal was like. Nothing else. Just repeat what you did a few seconds ago. When you're at the practice range, work on this with every shot you hit.

Third, after you hit the shot and see where it ended up, let it go. Forget about the result, good or bad. Do not judge it, especially a shot that was less than you were hoping for. Put your mind immediately on the next shot. There's a time to get upset by your bad shots and to congratulate yourself on your good ones, but that time is not when you're out there playing.

The mental game is simple, because there isn't much to it. It's hard, because you can easily be pulled away from the right frame of mind. Work on getting the feeling of a calm mind at will, and it can be done. It is worth at least four strokes, and I mean it.

For more on the mental game of golf, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html

USGA: Rate the Red Tees For Men!

2011-09-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, the USGA and the PGA of America had a campaign to encourage golfers to play from the set of tees that are appropriate to their level of skill. I hope it went well, because the whole point was to make golf more fun and easier to play. What few male golfers know is that the right tees might be the red ones.

For years, the red tees have been called the Ladies' Tees. They're for short-hitting women. This needs to stop, or rather, become more inclusive. There are some short-hitting men out there, too. In general, if you can't drive the ball more than 200 yards, you should be playing from the reds. The other tees present a course that is too long for you.

Even if you can hit the ball farther than 200 yards with a driver, but are pretty wild with it, you can play from the shorter tees, hit something off the tee that will keep the ball in play, shoot a better score, and . . . have more fun.

But some (actually, many) men feel that their manhood would come into question if they played from the red tees, even if they are hacks from the next set longer. Their loss, I'm afraid.

There is another reason why men won't play from the red tees, and that is there is no course rating for men, at least as far as I have ever seen. Look at the scorecards of the courses you play. There will be an M and L rating for the white tees, maybe the blues, but the reds only have an L rating. That means if a man plays from them, his score can't be turned in for handicap purposes.

It's not that playing from the red tees will make a 90-shooter a scratch golfer, either. It might lower their score by four strokes. You might get the ball up the green quicker, but you still have to get the ball in the hole. The red tees make the game easier, but not that much easier. I know. I play from the red tees with my grandson, and I shoot only two strokes better for nine holes than I normally do.

And, having only an L rating perpetuates the myth that the reds are "Ladies'" tees. Look right there on the scorecard -- L for ladies. What could be plainer?

So I'm calling on the USGA to encourage local rating organizations to establish course ratings for men at the red tees. If this body wants people to play from the right tees, then all barriers need to be removed, and this one is in the USGA's purview. I'm even thinking of forming a committee to rate the red tees for men as soon as I can think of a title that lends itself to a catchy acronym.

In the meantime, if you want to have some fun, play a round from the red tees. You'll hit different clubs, see a different course, and shoot a lower score, which is always good for the ego.

Another way to shoot lower scores is to read the best book on the market on recreational golf at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

2-wood Back In the Bag

2011-09-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

After years of frustration trying to hit a metal driver, I pulled my old wooden Wilson 4300 2-wood out of the bag I keep old clubs in down in my basement. It's the club I teed off with, quite nicely, for several decades before I decided it was time to get modern.

I live next to a huge field that is used as a parking lot for our state fair. Two weeks out of the year it is filled with cars. Fifty weeks out of the year it is great for hitting golf balls - 600 yards long and 200 yards wide. There is O.B. but I defy you to hit one out.

I took three balls this morning, a few tees, and the 50-year-old club to the field and hit a few. It was like going home again. The soft feel of impact, the gentle click of the ball, and the flight? OMG! Up in the air, straight, hang time to die for.

Controlling this club is easy. The small head doesn't seem to have the same wind resistance during the swing that the larger-headed metal driver does. The steel shaft (42½") gives me a uniform feel with the rest of the set. The best thing is I don't lose one yard. In fact, because I can get the ball in the air, I might actually be gaining yards.

The extra loft contributes to that last part, I'm guessing it has about 13 degrees of loft, whereas my metal driver has 10.5. I'll have to have it checked on the loft/lie machine at my driving range.

Hit it on the screws and you're good to go. There actually are screws, too.

Sometimes older is better. Sorry, Titleist, it's to the basement with you.

I have a few of these in my basement too, but they need to be in your hands: www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Lexi Thompson and the LPGA

2011-09-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Lexi Thompson showed the LPGA that she is ready, as a player, to compete and win. She led wire to wire in her five-stroke victory in the Navistar Classic in Prattville, Alabama. She was never seriously challenged because she did not allow anyone to come close.

If there is anything she lacks, I'm not sure what it would be. Her size and strength make her the biggest hitter out there. She has touch around the greens as well. The only question is how well she can stand up to week-in, week-out competition, or whatever the LPGA schedule can muster up that approaches that.

That's the only question about her playing ability. There is a big question about her even playing. Should she be able to become a full-time member of the LPGA Tour at 16 years of age, or next year at 17?

The LPGA rule about the minimum age for membership says that an applicant must be a ". . . female (at birth) [there's a hot-button issue right there] 18 years of age or over. . . . Females (at birth) between the ages of 15 and 18 may be granted special permission to apply for membership. . ."

So it can be done. Aree Song became a member at age 17 in 2003, as did Morgan Pressel in 2005, and neither were any worse off for it.

There also seems to be a requirement for her to go through Q School, even though she has won on the Tour. There isn't much sense in that, and Mike Whan, the LPGA Comissioner, has the authority to waive that matter. We might know in a few days.

The only thing I would be concerned about is Thompson's education. I believe a younger player must have received an accredited high school diploma to be eligible to apply for LPGA membership. The word "accredited" refers to the document awarded by a secondary school that provides a curriculum meets the requirements of the regional education accrediting agency. The diploma must also meet the standards for all public high schools of the state in which she lives.

I could, at this point, launch into an essay on the value of an education, but do I really need to? Get the diploma, the right one, then go play all the golf you want.

To further your golfing education, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

How To Decide Which Club To Chip With

2011-09-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

For any given chip shot, you could pick any number of clubs with which to hit it. You will always make the best decision if you first visualize keeping the ball as low as possible, then add trajectory gradually as you reject a lower-flying shots, until you find the one that fits.

Run through the clubs something this: putter, hybrid iron, 7-iron, pitching wedge, sand wedge, lob wedge. You're thinking about whether you could hit the shot easily with the club in question. If you're not sure, go to the next club. You could throw in other clubs to that sequence, but you get the idea. Visualize a shot that stays on the ground first, and get into the air slowly.

The putter works if the grass between the ball and the green is short and the ground is flat. The hybrid would be hit over short grass too, but where there is also an upslope the ball must traverse. You could hit your wedge over this ground, too, but the putter gives you so much more control, it is the best choice.

The 7-iron can be used where the grass between the ball and the green would grab a putted ball, but the ground is still flat enough from start to finish for the ball to run once it gets over the taller stuff. Again, you could use a wedge, but again, you get more control with the lower-lofted 7-iron.

The more lofted clubs would be used to get the ball over a hazard or taller grass still, or if the ball must stop quickly after landing on the green, such as if there is little room between the edge of the green and the pin, or if you are chipping onto a green that slopes away from you, or even toward you.

Don't guess. Run through this sequence every time you have a chip. It forces you to look at the ground before you in several ways. Have you ever hit a chip with a lofted club, not gotten much out of it, then looked again and realized that a less-lofted club would have been the better choice? Going through the sequence gives you the chance to see every possibility, and prevents you from neglecting the right one. That's what the pros do.

What if you can't decide between two clubs? Pull each one out and make a few rehearsal strokes. I guarantee you will feel better with one club than with the other.

For more ways to feel good about your game, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

In Golf, Clean Contact Is Everything

2011-09-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Golfers want to hit good shots. Shots that take the ball where they want it to go. Sounds pretty obvious. The mistake golfers make is in not focusing on the result of the shot is putting the cart before the horse. What golfers must be concerned about, perhaps the only thing they should be concerned about when it comes to ball-striking of any kind, is clean contact.

There is a virtual instant, 5 milliseconds, in which the clubhead is in contact with the ball. Geometry of the point of contact and the speed of contact is all there is to hitting the ball. The lessons you took were all designed to increase your chances of getting the correct geometry in place to that you could hit a shot you could play with.

Let me say this in a different way. Once I thought that my goal was to be able to hit the ball straight on command. Now I believe that my goal is to put the clubhead on the ball the same way and in the correct alignment. Making that conceptual switch has made all the difference in my improvement.

The value of understanding this is that by paying attention to contact you will improve every kind of shot you hit, from putting to driving, and improving your contact with a greenside chip, for example, will add a tiny improvement to the contact you get with every other shot.

In fact, if you want to become a first-class ball-striker, start with chipping. Learn to hit the ball off the center of the clubface with a 7-iron, chipping to a target maybe 30 feet away. You can even do this inside your house by chipping off a carpet into a pillow just a few feet away. After all, where the ball goes is not important. Clean contact, shot after shot, is.

Next you can move to longer strokes, but there is no point I doing that until you have spent the time perfecting the chip. And I do mean "perfecting." Any contact errors in your chip will show up in longer strokes. Hit hundreds of chips. Take your time between shots. You're going to school to reprogram your mind.

Grade yourself. Keep track of your progress. Clean, flush contact on the sweet spot is a 1. Anything else, a little thin, a little heavy, off-center, is a zero. Be honest. If you were to hit one hundred balls, the first time through you would be doing well to score over 20. Keep going until you score over 90, which might take a number of months, depending on how often you practice.

When you are ready, move on to a longer stroke and be just as demanding on your performance. We are striving for perfection, and there is no reason why we can't attain it.

As the length of your stroke increases, you will find that your swing is subtly changing to keep the clubface in a position where you can make it descend into the ball so you hit it on the right spot, on the right spot of the club, with the correct geometry of clubface angle, club path and trajectory.

I know, all this might sound boring. But if you're willing to work at it like this, and it will be work, then you will be able to play boring golf -- drive, iron, putt, putt (repeat seventeen times).

For more on how to bore your partners into submission, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Becoming a Good Golfer

2011-09-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I was at the range. The assistant pro and I were on the putting green. We got to talking about this and that, and the conversation got into the time when he was an aspiring tournament player. In comparing the difference between his game now, and what it was at that time (he was +4), and he is still a young man, he said it came down to two things: desire and focus.

There was a time when he was practicing and playing every day, because he had the desire, and all that time with a club in his hand gave him the focus to play his best every time he hit a golf ball. That's what it took to be good on professional terms.

It seems to me, that's what it takes to be good no matter what your goals are. Probably none of are going to become +4 handicap golfers, much less scratch or even single-digit. Talent aside, we don't have the time. But to become the good golfer we wish to be, we must have the desire and the focus it takes to get there. If you have that, no matter how much, or how little, time you have to practice and play, you can get the most out of it. Quantity of practice counts, but the quality of your practice is just as important.

You could start with practicing at home. There are always spare moments you can devote to the part of the game that is troubling you, and just a little practice, frequently done, goes a long way. A two-hour trip to the range once a week is enough time to practice everything - putting, chipping, pitching, and your swing. If you can practice more than that, even better.

The important thing, though, is to apply desire and focus to your practice throughout the session. That means you practice because you want to get better at golf, not because practice is an enjoyable way to spend some time, or some such reason as that. Your motivation for even picking up a club is that you want to get better.

Being focused means that every time you hit a golf ball your mind is fully engaged on what you're doing. If you have ten golf balls, hitting every one is a unique event. There's no hitting the first one and doing that again nine times. Every time you address a new ball you start over, with your grip, your setup, and especially with your mind.

In order to play your best golf, your mind must be in the right place as you hit the ball. Practicing that is every bit as important as practicing your technique. If you're practicing technique, by all means, take as many practice swings as you need to be satisfied that you're doing it right. But when you step up to the ball, your mental task is to let go of any thought of technique and let your habits take over. A major part of any practice session it to practice having total confidence in what you have trained yourself to do, from address to follow-through.

That's focus, and it's hard to come by unless you practice it. If you do, you will get the most out of what you have learned, every time you play. To learn that focus, well, it's hard work. You have to want to. That's desire. Put those two together and you'll be a good golfer -- one who gets everything out of his or her talent and technique, regardless of the score that gets made.

More ideas for golfers with limited time are found at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Long Putters and Such

2011-09-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

Everybody wants to have a long putter these days. Adam Scott has one. Webb Simpson has one. Keenan Bradley has one. Michelle Wie has one, though it didn't help her with a two-footer she had last Saturday. Good grief, even Phil Mickelson played with one in a pro-am. Who's next, Brad Faxon? Loren Roberts? Me?

Actually, I bought a belly putter about seven years ago. It's 42 inches long with a split grip. The trouble is that I'm 6'6" tall, and this putter doesn't even come up to my waist. I putt pretty well with it, but I like my old Bulls Eye better.

So just like Rory McIlroy winning the U.S. Open means he is going to win every major for the next eight years (or so the golfing press would have us believe), Keegan Bradley winning the P.G.A. with a broomstick putter, and Webb Simpson winning twice with one, means that everyone is going to switch. I think it's little early yet to say that. Both of those things.

What people are making noises about, though, is whether long putters should be outlawed. I guess it's OK with the purists to use one as long as you don't win anything. This reminds me of Sam Snead and the croquet-style putting stroke.

Snead, who had the yips real bad, got the idea for Bob Duden, an Oregon professional who adapted a putter so he could putt straddling the line of the putt, and facing the hole like he was playing croquet.

This was OK until Bobby Jones saw Snead was putting that way at the Masters. In short order the USGA said, No. (I'm surprised we still don't have the stymie. Jones loved that, too.) The rule that you can't straddle the line of your putt (16-1e) was adopted to kill croquet putting. Sam tried to get around it by putting side-saddle, but it wasn't the same.

Croquet putting just wasn't golf, what ever that means. People are saying the same thing about putters long enough to be anchored to your body in stead of being held exclusively in your hands. It's just not golf. If some genius in the 19th century had come up with a croquet putter, would it be golf now?

It doesn't matter to me. You still have to read the green, you still have to get the speed right, you have to keep your mind calm to make a smooth stroke. No putter will do any of those things for you. As long as you're actually hitting the ball, and don't "push, scrape, or spoon" it, that's golf. (Can anyone tell me what it is to 'spoon' the ball? You pick up the ball on a concave club face and fling it down the fairway?)

Let's find a different reason to complain about why you lost a tournament. And you know, it's only a few touring professionals who are bothered by this. As far as recreational golfers are concerned, and they are in the VAST majority, whatever helps them get the ball in the hole faster is just fine. The few I've played with who use a long putter don't seem to putt better with it, anyway, because they leave out this one key point:

The chest putter has to be anchored to your sternum during the stroke. If the end is moving around, you don't have a chance.

I say, if the long putters are banned, (and they probably won't be) then let's go back to wooden woods and wound balata balls. Or wooden-shafted clubs, to make Booby Jones's spirit happy. But until some long-shaft putting pro starts averaging 25 putts per round, enough with the sour grapes.

For currently legal ways to improve your game, go to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Don't Throw Away Your Long irons

2011-09-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

I have two sets of irons, both of which include a 2-iron. Since those clubs aren't even made anymore, unless you special order them, you can tell how old my clubs are.

Hardly anyone plays with long irons anymore. Even if they weren't hard to hit, you have to have a decent swing speed to get the distance out of them that they're supposed to deliver, and that speed is faster than most recreational golfers, including me, can bring to the table.

When I replaced my long irons with hybrid irons, I didn't get rid of them. I like to keep sets of things intact, because you never know when something you don't use anymore can suddenly become useful. This week my long irons became useful.

This summer has been devoted to getting into condition for a hike across the Grand Canyon -- down from the North Rim and out to the South Rim. You don't have to be in world class shape to do that, but the preparation is tough and doesn't leave a lot of energy left over for much of anything else.

Consequently, I haven't been playing much golf. I've played three rounds since April, but I've been working on the release that I learned back then, and my short game a lot. The hike will take place in the last week of this month, so I've started going to the range in earnest to be able to play my best after I get back. It's in these sessions that I discovered a good reason to haul out my long irons again.

That reason is, in order to hit a long iron well, you have to be doing a lot of things right. Quite frankly, you can get away with murder and still hit a 9-iron pretty well. But a 2-iron? A 3-iron? There's no room for doing anything but the right things if you want to make clean contact and send the ball off long and straight.

Part of my practice plan is to hit 10 shots with the even-numbered irons on one day, and the odd-numbered irons the next. So I challenged myself by taking out my hybrids and putting the long irons back into the bag. I knew I had to lead the club into the ball in just the right way and deliver the clubhead in just the right way to have any chance of getting a good shot out of the swing.

The results were fabulous. With the new release, and a few other adjustments, I hit them supremely well, so well that I might be tempted to go play with them. Alas, I won't, because I'm a too-slow-swing-speeder. Their role from now on is "practice club", but it sure is nice to be able to hit one and watch the ball fly off just like it's supposed to.

I didn't stop there, though. That swing was so right that I thought it had to be the swing to use for the other clubs, too. Since today was odd-iron day, I went back down through the 5-, 7-, and 9-irons with that 3-iron swing. I got great results, better than with the swing I had been using. This might not be a perfect golf swing, but it's pretty close to one.

That's the real value of taking your long irons to the range. You'll find your swing, and if you have the discipline, you can carry that swing throughout the bag and hit the ball much better than before. You'll hit your wedges a lot better with that swing, too.

I think Tom Watson does this. He hits his 2-iron only at the range, but it's to make sure that his swing is working the way it should.

I've written before about building your swing on your wedges. But maybe I got that backwards . . .

There's nothing backwards about what you'll find at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

The Length of Your Backswing

2011-09-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

To be in control of your swing, you have to be in control of the clubhead at all times. Take a backswing that is only so long that you can still be aware of where the clubhead is.

It’s like pounding a nail into a board. You’ll take only a short stroke with the hammer so you can hit down on the nail squarely. With a longer stroke you would lose the connection between the hammerhead and the nail. You’d have to “find” the nail again as you swing down and would seldom to it right.

In the same way, you should swing a golf club back only so far that you still feel a connection between the ball and the clubhead. If you swing back farther than that, the ball is essentially lost, and the chance of good contact is diminished.

Try this. Take the club back until your hands are at about an 8 o'clock position. At that point, you can feel exactly how the clubhead will come into the ball. The swing is small enough so that you feel complete confidence that you can make the clubhead meet the ball squarely. That's the feeling you want to have all the time.

Make more swings, taking the clubhead back farther and farther until you lose that confident feeling. That is a step too far. Shorten your swing so you get that feeling back. That's it. Don't ever take the club back any farther than that.

This might be a shorter backswing than you're used to, but that's all right. After a certain point, taking the club back farther doesn't do you any good, and probably makes things worse. Don't worry that this shorter swing will cost you distance. Because you'll hit the ball more solidly, you won't lose any, and might get more.

What I talked about is taking the club back only so far as you can still sense where the clubhead is. That does not mean that you restrict your turn. Always turn fully, that is, turn your upper body to the point where your back faces the hole directly. You can restrict your arms, but never restrict your turn.

For more easy ways to play better golf, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com

Coming September 7 - Why the Golf Ball Curves

Paul Harney: 1929-2011

2011-09-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Paul Harney, a stalwart of the PGA Tour in the 1950s and 60s, died last week at the age of 82. He won six tour events from 1957 to 1972, and finished fourth in the 1963 U.S. Open, missing the three-man layoff by one stroke. In the 1960 Open, he was Arnold Palmer's playing partner for the final 36 holes of Palmer's historic victory.

Harney played full-time on the Tour for only seven years. Once his children started school he became a part-time player and full-time club professional. He had four top-ten finishes in the Masters, finished seventh once in the PGA, but never played in the British Open.

For those of us who remember, Harney was one of the players who created the face of professional golf in that era. For me, he represents the time when I started to play the game and follow the Tour. I was a wonderful time, and thinking of him takes me back.

My condolences go out to the Harney family, who had the privilege of long association with this great man.

www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html

Ten Easy Ways to Play Better Golf

2011-09-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

Everybody wants to shoot lower scores without working that hard to do it. Why wouldn’t they? Most recreational golfers have busy lives that leave them barely enough time to play, and even less for practicing. Here are ten easy ways to shoot lower scores in the time you do have to play and practice.

1. Off the tee, play a game of Get the Ball In the Fairway. That means keep your driver in the bag unless you’re sure you can hit the fairway with it. Most of the time, you don’t need the extra distance the driver gives you. In fact, leave your driver home one day and see what happens when you’re hitting your second shot from the short grass more often that you might be doing now.

2. Work real hard at making good contact with your irons. If you do, straight shots follow. Hitting fat, and most recreational golfers do hit behind the ball, is the major cause of poor iron play, not slicing or hooking. Learn to hit the ball first, the ground second.

3. Your short game goal is to get the ball on the green and reasonably close to the hole. Don't get cute. Just get the ball on the green with your first short shot so you can start putting.

4. Practice approach putting a lot. More 3-putt greens are caused by leaving the first putt too far away from the hole than by missing short putts.

5. Always feel good about the shot you’re about to hit, especially around the green. If you don't, then pick another shot or a different club. Having full confidence in what you’re about to do is a critical golf skill.

6. Never give up on a hole. You can still make par even with a mediocre shot or two, or even one bad one.

7. Get real good at letting go of the past and not getting ahead of yourself. Never berate yourself when you hit a bad shot and never moan over having to play the next one from a less than ideal place. Never think ahead farther than the hole you’re playing on.

8. Don't think about the score until the round is over. If you’re playing poorly, thinking about your score makes things worse. If you’re playing well, you’ll cut yourself off from the frame of mind that got you there.

9. Don't rush to judgement about which shot you are going to hit, or to where, or with which club. Take a few extra seconds to find the right option. If you do this with a calm mind, the right option for you will become clear.

10. If there's a hole in your game, get a lesson to get it fixed. Most golf shots are easy once you know the secret. The pro will tell you simple things you would never figure out in a million years.

Find more easy ways to play better at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Starting today, I'll be posting every third day instead of every other day.

Coming September 4 - The Length of Your Backswing

"I'm Going Through a Swing Change"

2011-08-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

We hear that how often on the golf course? It's a really good excuse for hitting lousy shots and a good one here and there. "I've cast off from my old swing, and and haven't really landed where my new swing will take me, so that's why I'm playing just as bad as I always do."

Most of the time I hear someone say they're going through a swing change, they found something by accident at the range that let them hit three balls in a row better than they ever have and the Key To Golf is now theirs if they can remember what it was and put in the time to install it in their swing on top of all the other things that aren't helping them.

I know. I used to be that golfer. I would find a little thing, and think, "This is it!" My sons wish they had a nickel for every time I told them I was working on a new swing technique, no, this time it's really different, etc., etc., etc.

What it was, was just noticing something I had been doing all along, overdoing it, and finding that it didn't work anymore. I must have gone on like that for a dozen years. I got better, but not that much better. My Swing of the Week didn't do much for my confidence, either, since I never knew which swing I would be taking to the course, and what do do when it stopped working.

So I decided to jump ship. I had some lessons in which my pro set me off on a new direction and changed me into a different golfer. That was in May. I stopped playing golf to work on this. There were a few serious rounds in which my short game saved me, and weekly rounds with my grandson batting the ball around the local 9-holer, but it was mainly practice, practice, practice.

This change went through three distinct phases -- what the pro taught me, how I made it my own, and how I settled back into my old swing but with this modification. That's what you have to do. There's only one way you know how to swing a golf club, one way that makes sense based on your build, your strength and flexibility, and your internalized conception of physical movement. All that defines how you will swing the club. It is up to you to learn the correct principles of swinging a golf club and interpret them through those things I listed that make you the athlete you are.

A real swing change is a major commitment and takes time, thought, and continual practice to adopt. First you have to make sense of what the heck you're supposed to be doing. Once you get that down, you have to figure out how to swing and do that new thing at the same time. Believe me, that's not easy. Finally, once you can swing with the change, it's still a studied motion, so you have to ease back into the style of swinging that feels natural to you, but with the new technique in place.

It takes guidance a long the way. I have had two more lessons in just this thing, to make sure I'm doing it right and to correct a few matters that came up. I haven't hit 10,000 balls along the way, but about half that, yes. I hit five times a week and swing the club every day.

Where at first it felt quite strange, and I could do it only with my 9-iron, this change now works throughout the bag. Th current task, since the guess-work and probing and trying is over, is getting in the reps to make it an unconscious habit. I should be ready in a few months.

Definitely, by all means, go through a swing change. But do it under the direction of a pro you trust, and be ready to put in serious time working on just that one thing. It's worth it.

Something else that is worth it is what you will find at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming September 1 - ???

How to Choose the Right Golf Course

2011-08-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

Golf is a recreational sport where the field of play is not standardized. Unlike softball or tennis, where if you've seen one field/court, you've seen them all, every golf course is different. That could be, in fact, the major attraction of golf -- to try your luck on different layouts. Each one has its own challenges, tests, and design that encourages us to do our best and at the same time to enjoy the look of new surroundings.

For developing your skill at the game, though, take some time to choose the courses you play on regularly. Playing on the right ones makes a big difference. Here are some things you might consider, given that you have enough different courses to choose from in the area where you live.

If you're a beginner, an executive course is the best bet. This is a short course, around 2,000 yards long or less for nine holes, and consisting mostly, if not exclusively, of par 3 holes. Most of the time you'll be able to reach the green in one shot. Each time you swing the club the ball will be on a tee, making it easier for you at the start.

Golfers who are comfortable with golf's basic skills now want to find courses that present a well-rounded set of offerings. You might want to play one that is fairly wide open from the tee, so you can learn how to be comfortable just giving your driver a good whack. You might also want to play one that is fairly tight (rough, trees) to get you comfortable hitting your driver straight. On one course I play, if you get the ball in the fairway, the rest is easy. Miss the fairway and it will be a long day.

Play a few courses with lots of hazards - water, bunkers - to learn how to avoid them, and more importantly to learn how not to fear them. I read some years ago about a touring pro who grew up on a course that had no water, and as a professional was always intimidated by water hazards.

Play a course that forces you to hit accurate iron shots into the green. This would be one that has small greens, or larger greens surrounded by sand traps, thick rough, mounds, and so on.

Play courses that develop your short game. One course I play on has thick rough around the green, so I had to learn how to hit very short shots out if it to nearby pins. Another one has closely-cut grass surrounding the greens, calling for a different kind of chip. A third course, because of the hole yardages, has me hitting more pitches from 60-100 yards than any other. On some courses you can bump and run the ball onto the green. Others make you fly the ball on from close in. There is no one course that will develop a rounded short game. You have to travel to get one.

Amenities are important, too. Is the staff courteous and helpful? Is the course easy to walk if you wish to? Is it well-maintained? Is it easy to get a tee-time?

Quite important is whether the course fits your skill level. Each course has ratings, two numbers printed on the scorecard beside each set of tees. Most recreational golfers would best play on a course where the first number is under 70 and the second number is under 120, something like this: 69.3/117. Courses with higher ratings might be too hard and not as much fun.

Remember, as recreational golfers, we play for the enjoyment of the game and the company of good friends in beautiful surroundings. Take advantage of the variety that is built into our sport, and you'll have more fun, and may be even get to be a better player.

Another way to become a better player is to go to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming August 30 - "I'm Going Through a Swing Change"

Two Grip Tips - Revised

2011-08-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

I was able to upload the video of the Two Grip Tips from my August 22 post. See the video here:

http://www.therecreationalgolfer.com/twogriptips.html

The Right Elbow In the Golf Swing

2011-08-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's the little things that make big differences. Bringing the clubhead into the ball square and in line is such a precise skill that the littlest thing can throw it off. Or, the littlest thing can ensure that you're all lined up. Here's one of those little things--your right elbow.

Golf swing coaches counsel us to put width into our swing if we want to hit the ball a long way. They say to extend both arms at takeaway to create the longest swing arc you can. The reasoning is that the longer the arc, the farther the club has to move to hit the ball, and the more time it has to build up speed. That sounds like good advice, because who doesn't want to hit the ball a long way?

The problem is that the wide swing arc, created by extending the arms well into the swing, comes at the price of accuracy. The wider arc makes it harder to find the ball again, and swing path and clubhead control can easily be sacrificed.

There's another way to get distance, with no loss of accuracy. That is to start folding your right elbow (left elbow, for left-handed golfers) early in the backswing. Let the takeaway motion go directly into this folding movement. Do this instead of keeping that right arm extended out with the left arm.

This will accomplish three things. First, it will encourage a complete turn away from the ball. By folding so soon, the right arm gets out of the way of your rotating torso, giving it a clear path to make as full a turn as you are capable of.

Second, it helps the left forearm rotate on the way back, keeping the clubface in the same square position that it had at address. Excess cupping of the left wrist (bending it backwards), throws the clubface out of square. This error is eliminated because the right hand is not forced back against the left due to a lack of space to move into.

Third, folding the right elbow early keeps the swing free of tension. Because the body has a clear path to complete the backswing, it doesn't have to fight against itself to get where it wants to go. Thus the mind stays relaxed and can start the clubhead down calmly. The most prevalent error recreational golfers make, hitting from the top, is in this way prevented.

Don't take this folding too far, though. The right arm must not come in so much that the left arm starts folding, too. It must stay in the same posture that it had at address.

Benefits continue as the downswing develops. The early folding allows the right arm to fold completely, so it can tuck itself neatly into the right side on the way down. This is a fabulous position for storing power.

In addition, the right arm will still be bent at impact, which is exactly how you want it to be. This arm will eventually straighten, but at impact it is still in the process of straightening, releasing the power you stored up earlier.

This all adds up to longer, more accurate shots because you will hit the ball on the center of the clubface, square and in line, much more often.

Experiment with finding the point after takeaway when your right elbow should begin folding. This might be the one thing you need to turn your swing completely around.

Find out more good ideas that will turn your game around at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html

Coming August 28 -- How to Choose the Right Golf Course

Golfers: Hit Fat No More

2011-08-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, when Annika Sorenstam was on the LPGA tour, she was in Portland for the Safeway Classic golf tournament and was being interviewed by a local TV talk show. The host asked her, "Annika, do you ever hit it fat? I mean, just turn up some sod?" and she answered, "No." Not, "No, I haven't done that since I was 13 years old." Just, "No," and then looking at the interviewer for the next question.

For us, it's not No. It's once or twice a round, and if you really wanted to cut it fine, we probably hit a little bit behind the ball on every swing. I'm not kidding. The pros start their divot in front of the ball, but we do that once in a blue moon.

Don't believe me? Try this. Go to the range and hit from the grass tees. Lay a tee on the ground, on its side, pointing at the front edge of the golf ball. Take a few practice swings with your 7-iron. Now hit the ball. I will bet you dollars to donuts that the divot started behind where the tee is pointing. Hitting behind the ball is your standard shot. Let's fix that.

There are many reasons why you do hit behind the ball. We'll deal with a big one here. It is that your weight is staying on the back side on the downswing. That is, if you're a right-handed golfer, your weight shifts a bit to the right when you take the club back, and it stays there was you're swinging through the ball. For lefties, same thing. Your weight moves left and stays left. Result, the bottom of your swing shifts to a point behind the ball. Fat city.

Here's the easy cure, and I do mean easy. When you take your backswing, the weight on your left foot shifts to somewhere around the big toe. (Lefties, the right foot.) The first thing you should do on the downswing, according to Harvey Penick, is shift your weight to your left foot and bring the right elbow into your body. Let's concern ourselves with the left foot.

There's a problem with that instruction, in that it's incomplete. You can put your left foot down and still not have your weight shifted to it. to be sure you get that weight left, put your left heel on the ground, and even finer, the outside of your right heel. If the outside of your right heel is pressed against the ground, your weight has to be left. You cannot keep your weight to the right and do this.

Practice to smoothly move the weight on the left foot from the big toe or thereabouts to the outside of your left heel when you start your downswing, and the fat shots will disappear. I promise.

For more easy magic, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming August 24 - The Right Elbow In the Golf Swing

Two Grip Tips

2011-08-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

The grip is the first fundamental of golf. Get a good grip and building a good swing is much easier. Read about it, or see the video here: http://www.therecreationalgolfer.com/twogriptips.html.

1. Every golf book talks about how to take your grip by showing you how the club lays across the palms of your hands. Try building your grip by looking at the back of your hands.

Your fingers have three rows of bones in them. In the hand at the end of the grip, the left hand for righties, and the right hand for lefties, the relevant section is the one just above the back of the hand, where the fingers attach to the hand. For the other hand, the relevant section is the next one up, the middle section. The third section, where the fingertips are, is not relevant.

Set your hands on the club so it is held in the fingers of both hands, and the two sections of bones I just mentioned line up with each other. That is, there is a neat row of bones all in a line. (photo)

Now slip your left thumb into the pocket formed in the palm of the right hand. Finally, lift up your right little finger and slide your right hand down, placing the little finger on top of the left index finger, or between the left index and middle finger. There's your Vardon grip.

Lining up the bones (I wish I had a better way to say that) locks your two hands together without having to press them together. If you hands come apart even a bit during the swing, the clubhead turns and accurate contact is lost. This is the way to prevent that from happening.

2. Hold the club at the balance point. If you hold the club all the way at the end of the grip, the club feels whippy and you feel no connection with the clubhead. If you hold the club at the bottom of the gripping material, next to the shaft, the club feels short and stiff. Again, there is no feeling of being connected to the clubhead.

If you feel around about an inch from the top of the handle, you will find a balance point where the clubhead feels like it is an extension of your right hand. Be sensitive in finding this pint. sometimes a quarter of an inch makes the difference.

This is where to hold the club. You will hit better shots because you know where the clubhead is at all times, and where it is facing.

Line up your knuckles, and find the balance point. This is how to make your grip work for you.

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Announcement: On Thursday, August 18th, I recorded my 10,000th page view. Thank you for your support.
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For more little tips that make a big difference, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming August 22 - Golfers: Hit Fat No More

A Day At the LPGA's Safeway Classic

2011-08-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

You were expecting a post on a different subject today. But I try to be topical, and since I went to the LPGA tournament yesterday, I thought I'd talk about that.

I took my grandson. I wouldn't have gone otherwise. He plays golf with me. I'm a 9, so I hit shots good enough to be a 9. Believe me. My good shots are nowhere near what a professional golfer's good shots look like. He needed to see what a good golf shot really looks like.

We got to the course at about 10:30, and the morning wave had all teed off. We picked up a few unknowns and followed them for a few holes and by chance ran smack into Ai Miyazato, Vicky Hurst, and Anna Nordqvist going the other direction. So of course, we switched to following them. Miyazato turned a drive that would have given me a double bogey into a routine par, Norqvist sank a birdie putt from downtown, and Hurst, well, she wasn't having a great day.

Later we saw three players about 70 yards away on a par 5 all put their pitch birdie-close to a tucked pin. That was impressive.

I also noticed the around the green, the players kept the ball on the ground hitting it up to the pin. No flying it up there with a lob wedge. Ground all the way.

We saw players who had it clicking and players who were just that much off that the strokes were piling up. There are so many golfers and the course is so big, you can't see everybody. We did have a chance to see Morgan Pressel, Grace Park, and Suzann Pettersen play a few holes. Park and Pettersen were doing well, Pressel wasn't, long story short. I noticed that Pettersen moves her head all over when she putts. Maybe that's why she isn't making those 8-10 footers in the crunch.

As for Grandson (age 12) he followed with interest for a while, then made a golf club out of the foil wrapper his hamburger came in, a sign his interest had faded. We made our way back to the clubhouse, watched the last of the afternoon wave warm up on the range (a succession of easy, unforced swings), headed out toward the parking lot, pausing to watch one group tee off, then went home.

An airport nearby has an annual air show on the same weekend as the tournament, so Grandson was fascinated by the aircraft flying over, especially the F-15s. Try putting with all that racket sometime.

We got caught in Friday afternoon traffic on I-5 coming home, so a long day ended up being a bit longer than we had planned on. We both had fun watching the golf and with each other, though, so I think we'll be back next year.

My father took me to see the Portland Open Invitational in 1959. Billy Casper won, and I got Arnold Palmer's autograph. That was before he was really Arnold Palmer, when he signed for me it was just the two of us. I still have vivid memories of that day, which I might share with you sometime. I don't know what of today's trip got into Grandson's head, but I gave him the exposure, and no doubt it is something that he will remember forever.

Just for fun, pop over to www.therecreationalgolfer.com for tips and the best book on recreational golf you have ever read.

Coming August 22 - Two Grip Tips

Five Ways To Have More Fun With Golf

2011-08-18T06:30:00.002-07:00

If you’re a recreational golfer, that is, not a golfer who is trying to win tournaments, but someone who just wants enjoy yourself in the out-of-doors with your friends, try these five ways to make golf more fun.

1. Play from the right set of tees. Almost every recreational golfer plays a course that is too long, and therefore too difficult. Multiply the length of your average drive by 25. That product is the length of the course you should be playing. Be honest with yourself about how long your average drive is. It’s about 95 percent as long as your best drive.

For example, if your average drive is 220 yards, and that’s not bad, you should play a course that is 5,500 yards long, not the 6,400-yard monster that you’re playing now. You’ll have more short irons into the par 4s, you’ll make more pars and maybe a few birdies . . . and have more fun.

2. Play scrambles. This is a match where your foursome divides into two teams. Each player on a team hits off the tee, then the best tee shot is chosen and both players hit from there. After every pair of shots from the same location, the best shot is elected and the two partners play from there, all the way into the hole -- even on the putting green. This game makes golf a little more social, because you have partner helping you with your score, and your bad shots are forgiven. That last part is really more fun.

3. Throw away the scorecard. Play a round where you don’t keep score. Just hit the ball into the hole and move on to the next tee. Too often we get anxious about the shots we have to hit because of how they might affect our score. The score is just a record. Don't let it become the reason we play.

Try once just playing. Don’t count your strokes, don’t even keep track of them in your head. Give up the score. You might find that alone releases a lot of worry and makes the game a lot more enjoyable. You don’t always have to be competing with someone or with yourself. Sometimes, just play.

4. Lighten your load by playing with fewer clubs. You don’t need three woods, seven irons, three wedges and a putter to move the ball around the course. What you do need is a club to hit off the tee with, a long club and a medium club for the fairway, two wedges, and a putter. That’s six. With that set, you can solve any problem the course throws at you by being creative, and making yourself be more creative is, well, more fun.

What about your score? Won’t it go up if you don’t have all your clubs? If you try this, you might notice that with this abbreviated set your scores stay pretty much the same as the ones you get with the full set.

5. Play golf with your children or grandchildren while they still are children. You give them a lifetime gift, and your time on the course together will build a personal relationship with deep roots. What more needs to be said?

If you play golf for fun, play it so it is fun. We don’t have to play the game tournament professionals play. Being ourselves, recreational golfers out for a good time, is enough.

For more ways to enjoy golf, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming August 20 - Two Grip Tips

PGA Player of the Year - So Far

2011-08-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

Now that the four major tournaments have been completed, we can start talking about who is likely to be the PGA Player of the Year. Because no one player has been truly dominant, it's a difficult decision to make.

We should start the discussion with who won the major tournaments. The major title winners this year are Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke, and Keegan Bradley.

Clarke and McIlroy aren't members of the Tour, so they're out right away. Schwartzel won the Masters, and finished no worse than 12th in the other three majors. Bradley won the PGA, but wasn't qualified for the other three.

In the past twenty years, only three players have won POY without winning a major title. Greg Norman in 1995 and Corey Pavin in 1991 won the award and were the Tour's leading money winner. This year the money leader is Luke Donald, with Nick Watney close behind. Schwartzel is currently #20 on the money list, and Bradley is #6.

Multiple Tour winners? Jim Furyk, the third non-major POY winner, won the award last year for winning three tournaments, including the Tour Championship.

This year's multiple winners, each with two, are Mark Wilson (13), Bubba Watson (9), Steve Stricker (4), Watney (2), with current money list places in parentheses, and Bradley.

Donald has won twice in Europe, but that won't help him here. He won once on the PGA Tour and has been world #1 for eleven weeks.

Stroke average? In order, Donald, Stricker, Watney, Garcia (!), and Schwartzel. This has never been the deciding factor, but it does add validation to the other criteria.

Those are all the objective standards we can haul out. If you want to add charisma, McIlroy wins hands down, but again, he's not a member of the Tour. Who we are left with are Bradley (two wins + PGA), Donald (one win, W#1, leading money winner), Stricker (two wins, #4 on the money list), Schwartzel (Masters), and Watney (two wins, #2 on the money list). Watson, and Wilson, nope.

Stricker, Schwartzel, and Watney are having good seasons, but that's it. It looks to me like a contest between Donald and Bradley, with the edge to Donald because of his year-long consistency and assuming W#1.

Of course, someone could get hot in the FedEx Cup series and shake things up. Normally I don't care very much about this desperate exercise to compete with the NFL and NASCAR that only Tim Finchem and Kelly Tilghman love, but this year it might actually mean something.

If all you're interested in is your own game, you couldn't do better than by going to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming August 18 - Five Ways To Have More Fun With Golf

Statistics For the Recreational Golfer

2011-08-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

Golfers like to keep statistics on their game. It's one way to learn where you need to improve. The trick is to keep the right stats. Different levels of skill require different ones.

If you’re a beginning golfer, keep track of these two numbers only: number of fairways hit, and number of three-putt greens. These entry-level indicators show you how well you’re doing at learning golf’s two fundamental skills, the swing and putting.

A good goal is to get the ball onto over half the fairways. Meeting that goal indicates improvment in your swing, but also that you’re choosing the right club off the tee (it won’t be your driver at first). As for three-putt greens, two per round is a good goal to start with. Practice 30-foot putts and three-foot putts to reach that magic number.

Once you start hitting the ball well, the stats you should be keeping take a little more work to collect, but the information they provide is far richer.

The key stat for your swing is proximity (to the hole) in regulation (PIR). After you've hit the regulation number of strokes on the hole (par minus 2) record how far away you are from the hole, in yards. Write that number down on your scorecard. Circle it if you hit the green in regulation.

Good scoring depends on your golf swing. Using as few strokes as possible to get up to the green is the golf's most critical skill, but what is important is how far away you end up after that regulation number of strokes.

Whether or not you hit the green in regulation is of secondary importance. On the one hand, say you hit the green, but you're 45 feet away and looking at three putts. On the other hand you might have missed the green, but are less than twenty feet away with an easy chip (which you could sink) and a putt.

PIR reflects the combination of drives and approach shots. If your average proximity is too far away from the hole, it doesn't matter too much whether your drive or your approach was to blame. All you need to know is that there's a swing problem to be worked on.

Second, write down the length of your first putt. If you didn’t hit the green in regulation, you’re recording how close your short shots leave your ball from the pin. The length of the short shot, recorded by PIR, tells you roughly what kind of short shot it was, so you know which phases of your short game are producing and which aren’t. Circle this number if you sank the putt.

Third, and finally, write down the length of your second putt. Circle it if you sank it.

Keep these stats for a few rounds and you will see clear patterns that you can use to target your practice and your improvement.

Even more good stats and ideas on improving your game are at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming August 16 - The Player of the Year - So Far

In Praise of Gary McCord

2011-08-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

Everybody loves Gary McCord. He is the tournament announcer who always sees the odd view, who isn't afraid of making the loopy comment that everyone is thinking, but no one will say. Everybody loves him.

Well, may be not the stuffed shirts who run The Masters tournament, who objected to him talking about greens that were so slick they had been bikini-waxed, and about a spot behind the 13th green where they find the body bags of golfers who hit the ball there. I mean, Augusta is more holy to golf than the Vatican is to Catholicism. How dare he?

He dares because he's Gary.

But that's not all Gary McCord is. He is a guy whom every Tour player should tithe one percent of their winnings to. He, not Tiger, and made the tour the lucrative profession that it is. Gary McCord is one of the top five most influential persons in the development of the PGA Tour.

Why? He was the prime mover in creating the all-exempt tour, which changed everything overnight. Here's what that means.

In the early years of the PGA, all you had to do to play in a tournament was show up and pay the entry fee. If you were unknown, having another pro vouch for your skill established your credentials.

Starting in the late 40's, more golfers wanted to play than there were spots in the tournament. Patently unqualified golfers tried to compete. That demanded Monday morning qualifying rounds to be played, the highest finishers given entry to the tournament staring on Thursday.

For a while, that system worked, but is was a brutal entrance to the Tour for golfers who might might be bounced on Monday and have to wait around seven more days to try again. For golfers who passed Monday qualifying, making the tournament cut meant they were eligible for the next tournament. Miss the cut, and we'll see you again on Monday morning.

So many golfers were knocking on the Tour's door, that a qualifying program began in 1965. Called Q School, the survivors were the ones who could play on Monday mornings.

It worked for a while, but the Tour grew to the point where in the early 1980s, 68 percent of the Tour players were non-exempt. They had to Monday-qualify to get into tournaments.

Also the Monday qualifiers, called "rabbits," played very conservatively in order to just make the cut. They weren't learning how to play to win.

Joe Porter, a one-time Tour pro, had, along with Phil Rogers and a few other pros, come up with the idea of an all-exempt Tour in 1973. Gary McCord called Porter in 1981 and said something had to be done. The two discussed the all-exempt idea, and McCord was off to the races.

He floated the idea to the membership of an all-exempt Tour, got the sign-off of both the big stars and the rank and file, and presented the proposal of a 125-player exempt list to Tour Commissioner Deane Beman. It was approved for the 1983 season.

Now players finishing Q-School would have an entire year of tournaments they could enter at will to retain and secure their playing privileges. No more Monday qualifying.

Though the idea wasn't McCord's originally, this guy, who is a lot smarter than people think, or than he wants people to think, was the prime mover behind it all. On the air, he displays the mind of a man who sees the world differently than the rest of us. But then, it took that kind of mind to see this task through.

If he doesn't end up in the Golf Hall of Fame, there's no justice in the world.

There's no justice, either, if your scores stay higher than they should. Go to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html to do something about that.

Coming August 14 - Statistics For the Recreational Golfer

2011 PGA Championship Preview

2011-08-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

The final major of the year starts tomorrow. The one that gets too little respect, in contrast to the first one, which gets too much. Even I think that the golf season is essentially over after the British Open, but that's mainly because I'm starting to get amped for the college football season.

The question, as usual, is who is likely to win. For the past three years, predictions have been pointless. A different player has won each of the last 12 majors*. The last six have been won by a first-time major winner. Given the parity that exists in men's golf today, the answer to the question, Who is the best player to have never won a major, is, Everybody.

At the top right now, we have Luke Donald, a consistent player, but not an intimidator, Lee Westwood, who always finds a means of getting in his own way, Adam Scott, who might finally be coming into his own, and Jason Day, who keeps coming close so often that he has to have learned how to break through.

Personally, I would like to see Westwood take the trophy. I'm a sucker for the comeback story. Here is a guy who was the Next Big Thing for a few years and whose game just collapsed. He worked his way back with a swing that is the antithesis of the cookie-cutter swings on the Tour today. It looks homegrown (though it's not) in the way he just seems to rear back and whack it. Through all his disappointments in recent majors, he has never complained or made excuses. That means a lot to me, too.

The Championship will be played on the Atlanta Athletic Club course, the site of two memorable major wins. The first one was when Jerry Pate won the U.S. Open there in 1976. He came to the 72nd hole with a slim lead and a 5-iron to a pin next to water. Commentators were discussing whether he should go for it or lay up. I thought to myself watching on TV, "If he wants to be a champion, he'll hit the 5." He did, and won by two over Al Geiberger and Tom Weiskopf.

The next one was the PGA in 2001, when David Toms came down the same fairway and had the same dilemma. His tee shot was farther from the green than Pate's was and I was thinking. "If he doesn't lay up, he'll throw it away." He chose to lay up, then pitched over the water to eight feet and sank the putt to beat Phil Mickelson by a shot.

I should be a Tour caddy.

The course will be 254 yards longer this week than in 2001, with all but 33 of the additional yards being added to the first four and last four holes. The 6th hole has a pond fronting the green that is new. It will reign in long hitters when the hole plays as a 425-yard par 4, and be a risk element when the hole plays at 296 yards.

Jerry Pate hit his 5-iron on an 18th hole hole that measured 460 yards. David Toms's 18th was 30 yards longer at 490. This weeks it will be 507 yards long, with more trouble around the green than before. If you play a drinking game where you have to down a shot every time someone goes for the 18th green in two, you'll finish the day stone sober.

The weather forecast is for low 90s heat and near-60% humidity. There will be a lot soaked shirts by the third hole.

This one could be fun. I'll be watching. When it's over I'll be heading to Pre-Snap Read for the last three weeks before the college football season starts. FedEx Cup? Are you kidding?

There's still lots of time left this summer to become a better golfer. Go to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html to find out how.

*In order, staring with the most current winner: Clarke, McIlroy, Schwartzel, Kaymer, Oosthuizen, McDowell, Mickelson, Yang, Cink, Glover, Cabrera, Harrington. Note: only three Americans in the bunch.

Coming August 12 - In Praise of Gary McCord

What Are the Scoring Clubs?

2011-08-08T06:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you hear talk of the scoring clubs. They are best defined as the clubs that, if played well, will have the largest influence on keeping your score down. There is no fine line between the scoring clubs, though, and the scoring shots they hit. Let's talk about both.

Probably your most important club is your putter. The difference between being a good putter and a bad one is about six strokes per round. If you take more than 36 putts per round, you're a bad putter. A few putting lessons, and more putting practice will get you those six strokes.

The putts to practice are the ones from four feet in, and from 25 feet out. You just can't throw away strokes by missing those short ones, and three-putt greens are the result of leaving long approach putts too far away from the hole.

Some people might say that the next most important scoring club is the wedge (or the family of wedges), but I'm going to go with the short irons -- the 8-iron, 9-iron, and pitching wedge.

Hitting a second shot into the green from the distances you hit these clubs is a gift. There is no reason why you shouldn't get down in three with your eye on the green and short iron in your hand. At the range, hit these clubs three times as often as you hit your driver. You should be able to hit the green with a short iron more than half of the time, and still be close to the pin when you miss.

The last scoring club worth mentioning is your 6-iron. Not from the fairway, but from beside the green. Because of inaccuracies in iron play, most recreational golfers chip onto the large majority of greens. Getting up and down needs to become routine. Getting down in three (or more!) shots is a needless way to add to your score.

The 6-iron chip will save you as many strokes as good putting can. Let the professionals chip with their lob wedge. Hit your greenside chips with a 6-iron, to get the ball running to the hole as if it were an approach putt.

Notice that I didn't mention the driver. OK, I did mention it once, but not as a scoring club, because for most recreational golfers it's an anti-scoring club.

I have a rule of thumb that you should never hit a club that has less loft than your handicap. Until you get pretty good, that means leaving your driver home. Hit from the tee with the longest club you feel confident that you can put the ball in the fairway with. Don't worry about the loss of yardage. That seldom leads to a loss of strokes.

Think of scoring clubs as the ones that deal with getting the ball close to the hole and into the hole. Practice with then more than any others, and your score will plummet.

For more advice on how to score your best, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming August 10 - 2011 PGA Championship Preview

Getting the Golf Ball Off the Ground

2011-08-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

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 in comparison 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.

Take this basic skill and develop it into a fully-rounded game of golf by letting The Recreational Golfer's book be your guide.

Coming August 8 - What Are the Scoring Clubs?

The Golf Season So Far

2011-08-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Learn more about the mental game at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html

Coming August 6: Getting the Golf Ball Off the Ground

Why Should You Work On Your Short Game?

2011-08-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

To establish a basic short game, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Coming August 4: The Golf Season So Far

The Rules Of Golf In One Page

2011-07-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

For more ways to enjoy the recreational game, visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html

Coming on August 2: Why Should You Work On Your Short Game?

The David Feherty Show

2011-07-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

After the broadcast, get back on your computer and visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html for the finest golf instruction.

Another Tiger Woods Blog Post

2011-07-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

How To Develop a Repeating golf Swing

2011-07-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

The key to golfing consistency is to do the same things every time. You find a few things that work and learn to do them over and over again. If you do, then you will have a repeating golf swing, a consistent strike on the ball, and lower scores. These five things, which are very easy to learn, make a good foundation.

1. Grip the club correctly. The grip is probably the most important fundamental there is. Get a lesson on how to grip the club. Figuring it out for yourself seldom works. Once you have learned the right way to grip the club, practice daily. Even for just a few times, take up a club and apply the proper grip. Have your grip become second nature so you fall into it naturally on the course.

2. Take the club away straight back. Keeping your swing on the proper plane is vital to returning the club to the ball for a square hit. While there are places where the club can get off plane during the swing, at least give it a good start. In one of your golf lessons, have the pro check the path on which you take the club away. Memorize the correction, if any, and practice this often. It is easy for the club to start wandering, and then you start wondering why the ball isn't going where you want it to anymore.

3. Turn your shoulders fully. A full turn of the shoulders, of the same amount every time, is probably the second most important swing fundamental. This makes sure that you will be able to execute the next two points, starting the downswing, and maintaining tempo and rhythm, consistently. If you have the flexibility, your shoulders should turn 90 degrees. You may turn your hip as much as you need to, to get this amount of shoulder turn, and your left foot can come off the ground a bit if necessary.

4. Start the downswing slowly. The swing down should start out at the same speed as the swing up. Clubhead speed will then naturally build up, and you will keep control of the club so you can deliver a centered hit to the ball. Rushing the downswing in the slightest way introduces complications that you have no time to correct.

5. Maintain tempo and rhythm. Tempo is the overall pace of your swing. Rhythm is the differing speeds of its parts. There is an optimum tempo that lets you hit the ball your best. Experiment with different swing speeds to find yours. Swinging to a metronome is a good way to find it and practice it. As for rhythm, the swing will be faster going down than up, but in a natural way, like breathing in, then breathing out.

These five features of a golf swing are within anybody's ability to learn correctly and repeat consistently. If you can do them the same way every time you swing a golf club, a productive, repeating swing will be yours.

For a complete package of golf instruction written by a recreational golfer, for recreational golfers, see www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html

Can You Swing Easy and Hit a Golf Ball Far?

2011-07-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

Golfers want to hit the ball a long way, and they think they have to hit the ball hard to do it. That’s exactly right. You have to hit the ball hard. That doesn’t mean, though, that you have to swing hard.

If you’ve had the experience of throwing a ball, like in baseball or softball, you know that you can’t be a wad of tension if you want to throw the ball as far as you can. Muscles are certainly involved, but they are involved in a sequence of movements, each one of which plays a dual role. Each movement adds its own contribution to the total effort and at the same time leads into the next movement.

Only when muscles are relaxed can they perform both functions fully. The basic movements are performed correctly and add their full part to the total. They also flow freely to the next movement, the whole sequence building on itself like a chain reaction. Tension introduced at any point is like throwing sand in the gears.

Relaxation builds up speed, but that speed must be kept under control. There is a balance between clubhead speed and swing tempo that must be maintained throughout the swing for maximum clubhead speed to be attained and at the same time precisely applied.

Precise application is the goal of the golf swing, because that is the real secret to hitting the ball as far as you can. The ball will go the farthest when it is hit on the center of the clubface with the clubface square to the club’s path through the ball.

The best way to ensure that happens is to swing easily. Not deliberately, or carefully, but freely, with the movement of the clubhead coordinated with the movement of the body and the arms.

The best way to learn how to do this is to practice slow-motion swings. Make full, flowing swings, maintaining the rhythm of the swing, but slowing down the overall tempo so that correct swing habits are preserved, and giving the mind enough time to govern the proper swing sequence.

Try going to the range and making slow motion swings. Then hit a ball, swinging not too much faster than you were just doing, but definitely slower than you normally do. You might be surprised at how straight the ball goes, and how far. If you want to hit the ball farther, resist the urge to ramp up your swing speed right away. Keep making slow, controlled swings, gradually increasing the speed, never thinking about how far the ball will go, but only how smoothly you can swing.

You will find that this smooth swing delivers a hard hit that will get you the distance you have been looking for.

Get more great instruction on becoming a better golfer at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

One Hour At the Driving Range

2011-07-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

There are more practice plans and a complete guide to your game at at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

The Social Hazards of Recreational golf

2011-07-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

To become the recreational golfer you want to be, it's all right here: www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Avoiding Mental Drift

2011-07-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

What doesn't take any work is clicking to www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html to find an instruction book written just for you.

Fixing Golf's Incorrect Scorecard Rule

2011-07-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm on a rules roll this summer. A few weeks ago I proposed a way to fix the abhorred out of bounds rule. I haven't heard back from the USGA yet, but they know how to get in touch.

Today I want to inject some sanity into the scoring method the rules call for in tournament play. Too many golfers have been hurt unnecessarily by the rule holding a player responsible for his or her own score.

The earliest notable example I know of was when Jackie Pung shot the winning score in the U.S. Women's Open at Winged Foot in 1957, but signed for a lower score on the fourth hole than she actually took. DQ.

The linked article recalling this incident repeats a common misunderstanding regarding incorrect scores, by saying that a player who signs for the wrong score is disqualified. A player signing for a score on a hole that is lower than actually taken is disqualified. If a higher score is signed for, the score stands and the player's standing in the tournament is adjusted accordingly.

Also, players sign for scores on each hole. They do not sign for the total of all the hole scores. Rule 6-6d.

The next case to cause a stir was at the Masters in 1968 when Roberto De Vicenzo signed for 4 on the seventeenth hole instead of a 3, and lost by one stroke the chance to play off with Bob Goalby the next day for the title.

In the past few years, it has become not uncommon for a player in a professional tournament to be DQ'd for signing for a lower score. Sergio Garcia was a victim twice in the same year, and the Boo Weekly was the playing partner who wrote down the wrong score each time. Once was in the 2007 PGA Championship, and the other time was three weeks later in the Deutsch Bank Championship. Garcia was DQ'd from the PGA, but the error was caught by tournament officials the second time before Garcia signed.

Here's the problem. Golf is the only sport that doesn't have an official scorekeeper. Tennis players don't keep their scores. Shot-putters don't have to sign for the distance they toss. Sprinters don't have to sign for their time. Yet golfers are expected to be competitors and tournament officials at the same time.

Yes, golfers are expected to enforce rules, because many times the player is the only person who knows that a rule was broken. When the game is played on a 150-acre field instead of in a much smaller arena where an official monitors an area the size of your back yard, this is necessary.

But not for scores. That information is pretty public. When the world knows that DeVicenzo made a 3, nothing should get in the way of that score being posted.

The solution, then, in tournaments where there are markers accompanying each group, is for the score recorded by the marker to be the official score for the players in that group. A player would be allowed to appeal a score if there was a disagreement, but otherwise the marker's score would stand.

In tournaments where markers do not accompany each group, the players would keep each other's score. If a player signed for a higher score, that score would stand, as it does now. If a player signed for a lower score, the correct score would be replaced and a two-stroke penalty added on for each instance.

Earlier this year the USGA and R&A issued a ruling preventing a player for being disqualified for not including penalty strokes when the player was not aware that a rule had been broken, until after the scorecard had been signed. The basic issue remains unaddressed, though. Let's get real on wrong scorecards and let's have the punishment fit the crime.

Does anyone want to lay odds over which of The Recreational Golfers' brilliant Rules suggestions becomes official first?

The Recreational Golfers' brilliant instruction book is at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

2011 British Open Preview

2011-07-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Open is the most important tournament of the year, but the British Open is the most fun. This is real golf. Hit the ball in the air, run it along the ground, just find a way to get it in the hole. You see more creative shot-making in this tournament that in all the others combined.

It's also the most cosmopolitan tournament of the year. Entrants come from more countries to play in the Open than in any other tournament. You might say it is the World Open.

This year the championship is being played at Royal St. George's, on the south England coast. This is where Ben Curtis won in 2003. I remember tuning in early to see the fourth round, and the composed look on his face just gave me the notion that he could win. I called my Dad, who lived in a another city, and who I knew was watching, and said, "Pay attention to this guy. I think he could be our winner." With a little help from Thomas Bjorn taking three strokes to get out of a bunker, he was.

There are two other Open-quality courses right next door to RSG, Deal and Royal Cinque Ports. It would make a great golfing vacation to pay all three.

In the early days of golf, course designers liked blind shots. There's the vestige of one at RSG between the 5th and 6th holes. The 5th is a par 4 that doglegs left. the 6th is a par 3 that runs in the opposite direction. Between the 6th green and the spot where the 5th makes its bend, there is a 40-foot hill called The Maiden.

In the original routing, the 6th tee was at the bend, and your shot had to go over The Maiden, carrying a distance of 190 yards. A small post on top of the hill served as a directional marker. Woe betide you if you didn't make the carry.

If 190 yards doesn't sound like much, remember this: the hole was built in the 19th century when players used gutta percha ball and wooden clubs. The equivalent with today's equipment would be a 250-yard carry with the peak of the hill at the 230-yard mark.

"Maiden," by the way, derived from the original name of the hill, "Jungfrau," a mountain in the Bernese Alps. Look for this bit of history if the broadcast lets you.

Now for the part you're all dying to read. Who am I picking to win? Though McIlroy is the easy choice, lightning can strike twice, but not three times. The course isn't that long at 7,211 yards, so short hitters won't be left out. This is my birthday month. The day is the 28th. The #28 player in the World Rankings right now is Miguel Angel Jimenez. There's your Open winner.

I might miss the tournament this year, since I'll be in Japan during Open Week. Because of the time difference, I'd have to watch at around midnight. Probably won't happen.

The best instruction book you can find is at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html. Go take a look.

Golf Course Management In a Nutshell

2011-07-11T06:30:00.000-07:00

Good golf is not only a matter of hitting good shots. If it were, we would play it on the driving range instead of the golf course. Golf is about getting the ball into the hole in the fewest number of strokes. That’s such an obvious point, but the way I watch some people play, you would think they didn’t know that. Here’s how not to be one of them.

Let’s expand that statement about golf a little bit. The question is, from here, from where you’re standing now, how are you going to get the ball into the hole in the fewest number of strokes, given your skills? That’s what you have to be thinking, and if you are, you’ve come up with a shot sequence from tee to green that you will attempt to play out. The wrong way is to hit the ball somewhere and then decide what to do next when you get up to it.

To create this plan, work from the hole backwards. From where on the green do I want to hit my approach putt? From where on the fairway is the best place to hit the ball to that spot on the green? True, you might not be able to see from the tee where the pin is, but most holes have a preferred angle of approach, and you can try for a spot off the tee that gives you that angle. Once you get to the fairway, you can complete your plan.

Few of us, however, are good enough to put the ball exactly where we intend. When you miss the spot you were aiming for, you might have to modify your plan. Here are three scenarios that illustrate the point.

1. On a fairly easy par-4 hole, you planned a drive into the fairway and a short iron onto the green. But you muffed your drive, and now you have 280 yards to the green. You could bang away with a fairway wood and pitch on, or hit two 7-irons and cover the same distance.

2. You wanted to stay left off the tee of a par 5, but you went right and now must hit dangerously close to water to have the pitch onto the green that you planned on. Or, you can advance the ball to the left and away from the water, but you’ll have an 8-iron into the green.

3. You’re about 40 yards off the green and the pin is behind a deep bunker on the left side that you’ll have to pitch over, off a tight lie. Or, you could chip the ball to the center of the green, which is wide open to you, and get down in two putts.

Again, the question you should ask yourself in each case is, which sequence is the most likely to get the ball in the hole in the fewest strokes, given your skills?

When you play like this, golf becomes a game of strategy, rather than a game of this shot followed by that shot. Now you’re thinking all the time, connecting your shots into a single plan so that they work with each other, feed each other. By doing so, you get more out of the skills you have, you become a better player, and the game just gets to be more fun.

Read more tips about playing your best at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

A Recreational Golfer’s Weekly Practice Plan

2011-07-09T06:40:00.000-07:00

There's no way around it. To get better, or even to maintain skills, a golfer has to practice. What to practice depends on how much time you have available. We'll start with the essentials, and show you how to find time that you didn't think you had to get even more practice.

At home:
Putting. This is the easiest stroke to practice. All you need is a putter, a ball, and a smooth carpet. The lid from a 28-oz. can of whole tomatoes makes the perfect target, since it's just ¼" smaller than the regulation hole.

Practice your setup and your stroke. Practice getting your mind ready to hit the putt. The putt itself should only be about three or four feet long. The lid gives you something to align yourself to, but the object isn't to roll the ball across the lid. The point here is to keep your stroke in tune and to train your mind to think only of the stroke when you putt, and never about if you'll sink the putt or not.

Chipping. Here again is a stroke you can practice at home in a few spare moments. Hit some balls off the carpet into a backstop like a couch cushion or a pillow. Like putting, the point of your practice is to perfect the stroke. The goal is to hit every ball cleanly, no hitting fat, and keeping your hands relaxed as they bring the club through the ball.

Pitching. You can actually practice this at home, inside. I hook a mattress pad over a window curtain rod and hit plastic balls into the pad. It helps to hit the balls off a carpet remnant so you don't scuff a hole in your good floor carpet. Like with chipping, you're practicing the stroke, making clean contact and not concerning yourself with the result of the shot. How could you, anyway? The ball won't go more than ten feet!

At the range:
Getting to the range once a week would be ideal, but if you work, you might have only enough time to play and not to make another trip out just to practice. In that case, here's what you should do.

Practice after your round is over. I know that's socializing time, so pay your respects to your friends at the 19th hole, then buy your bucket and go out to the range. Start by hitting a few of the shots you played well today, so you can solidify that feeling of how to hit them.

Spend most of your time on the shots that gave you problems during the day's round. Take lots of practice swings before you hit a ball. Hit one only when you feel that your swing for this particular shot is where you want it.

Spend some time hitting pitches. Now you can practice hitting the shot to a target. Go the practice green and chip to a target, and hit some approach putts. All you had a chance to do at home is practice your stroke. Now you can practice the shot.

If you play once a week, and practice like this during the week, that will be all you need to maintain your skills and play golf that you can be proud of.

More practice plans and a complete guide to your game are at www.therecreationalgolfer.com/books.html.

Hitting the Ball Off the Ground

2011-07-07T06:30:00.001-07:00

In this world, you have to give a little to get a little. Baseball and tennis are difficult sports because the ball we have to hit is moving so fast. Let's slow the ball down a little, like to a complete stop. Now it's sitting on the ground, waiting for us to hit it at our leisure. Welcome to golf.

What we gave up to get a stationary ball is the freedom to hit a little above or below the ball, and now a second dimension, behind the ball, is added. The spot the clubhead has to hit is about the size of a dime, and the clubhead will be moving at about 80 miles per hour at the time. The margin for error is gone.

Learning how to pick the ball cleanly off the ground is the hardest problem new golfers have to solve. It will haunt them well into advanced golf, and may be an issue for their entire playing career.

There's an easy way to learn this, and if you're willing to put in the time, you can move on from wondering if you'll hit the ball to planning exactly where you're going to hit it.

Get a 9-iron, drop a ball in front of you, and take a stance with your feet about six inches apart. Now just chip the ball with a backswing that is no more than two feet long. The ball doesn't have to go anywhere, you just want to focus on clean, ball first-ground second contact.

You'll soon be able to tell if you hit the ground first, even by just a little, and also if you missed the ground completely, even though you hit the ball reasonably well. You'll learn, too, what the perfect strike feels like, where the ball, ground, and club all come together at just the right moment. That's your ball striking goal.

Do this exercise for a few minutes every day. Make short swings, get clean contact. You can't get too good at it. Once you have mastered the two-foot swing, and I truly mean mastered it, lengthen your swing, maybe by about a foot. If you have problems making clean contact, go back to the two-foot swing and gradually work back to the longer swing.

Keep lengthening you swing, but only when you feel you are ready to. There's no need to rush, and there are no short-cuts. This exercise builds a lifelong habit that will produce effective golf shots to the degree that you develop your skill with it. Six months of dedicated practice will get you to where you want to go.

If you have taken your time with this exercise, working in a controlled way through longer swings, being thoroughly prepared for the the time you move up, by the time you get to your full swing, you will be the ball-striker you had hoped you would be.

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