How to Improve Your Swing.

If you want to improve your golf you need to improve your body and your mind. The golf swing is one of the strangest dances with a stick to come out of Scotland since they invented music which comes out of a bag with pipes attached. It’s a devilishly tricky move which must be practiced over and over and more importantly must be viewed critically.

The good news is I don’t think it’s necessary to hit a thousand balls per day. In fact I see people hitting buckets and buckets of balls with the same horrid problems reproducing themselves each time and it’s probable that if you are swinging poorly and repeating the poor swing thousands of times you are anchoring this into your muscle memory and driving your game further into a hole. Many golfers run to a pro and will receive a lot of great advice then go out on the course and do exactly what they were doing before anyway, so the key is to understand what your body is doing through the swing and understand if this is helping you or not.

For me I spend time everyday working through excercises without a ball (sometimes without a club) in slow motion impregnating my muscles with a type of memory which I can call upon without thinking once I’m on the course. Feel the muscles flexing and relaxing and the tendons turning through the swing. Break down and visualize each part of the full swing so it is as familiar as any other natural movement you make during the day. I film my swing and compare my swing to others to see how my body alignes and turns compared to some of the best swings in the world (internet and some simple programs makes this all very easy, see the video above).

Although I’m not a bodybuilding nut, it’s important to keep my back and torso muscles in form with simple excerices like push ups and sit ups, and everything flexible with various rotation movements which train me to release tension before I tee up.

Most of all you must want to improve. If you accept you need help then you will be receptive to change even if this change comes from within. If you see a problem on the screen after filming yourself run through the movements until you feel your muscles changing and accepting this new movement.

Golf is a mind and body sport so use both.

How to Draw and Fade.

“If I want to draw the ball, I think draw.” Sam Snead said this and as simple as it sounds it still made me think. Why would this idea work?

Hitting the ball to the follow through is probably why thinking draw would make the ball draw back. I have just come off the range using this idea to just hit draws and fades with my eight iron aiming at concentrating on how I should be finishing my follow through.

For me to draw the ball I need to line my club face up to where I want the ball to land and my feet out to where I want the ball to fade in from. I then need the swing to finish with my hands crossed and out to the left of my body at about ten o’clock. This takes work but addressing the ball correctly and thinking draw, or more specifically thinking about where the swing will finish will give you a nice draw.

To fade the ball most golfers need just to open the stance a little and the ball will slice off the face like crazy. To make the difference between a flat out slice and a fade I play to a finish which has my hands finishing high over my left shoulder and the club face feels more parallel to the ground (even though it’s not really but the face is open through the follow through). This will put work on the ball as opposed to just slicing one off the fairway and out of bounds and ensure the club head gets under the ball at impact.

A draw will go further than a fade if hit exactly the same way so you need more space to work with to curl balls out of trouble and to the contrary will finish shorter than you think when fading the ball. The ball will also spin more to the right than to the left so expect the ball to fade away more than the draw to come back but thinking about how you should look at the end of the stroke certainly helps.

Photos By Stephen Szurlej

How to Recognize When You Are Actually Playing Golf.

What is your objective when you play golf? Um, hit the ball cleanly? Yeah, well, no.

The objective of playing golf is hit the ball in the hole using the least number of shots. The official Royal and Ancient St. Andrew’s rules have something to this effect written clearly at the very beginning. So why does everyone concentrate on the ball when you should be concentrating on the hole?

As Chuck Hogan said this is the “game of golf swing and not golf”. The perfect example is Nick Doherty in the Scandanavian Masters yesterday who had a horrid par 5, 15th hole which finished like clockwork. I’ll explain. He missed the fairway by about 50 yards to the right. It was a crappy drive. He knew it was crappy off the stick and he just kind of watched it go further and further away. He followed up by shanking one out over the left into some deepish rough.

I thought, like the sadist I am, how cool it was to watch a pro trudging through the weeds up both opposing sides of the fairway to find his ball. Then everything changed. Doherty pitched out of the rough with a fine shot, not spectacular, but a good workman-like effort to about 15 feet. Then he drains the putt and comes away with a birdie and grinning like he’s in a toothpaste commercial. He knew he’d slipped out of jail because he didn’t lose sight of what he was out there doing. Getting the ball in the cup. This is golf.

Yeah, but these guys have solid swings and they slap the ball 300 yards, blah, blah, blah. I hear you thinking. Sure this is true and nothing will replace putting in some hours to work on your swing but the swing is one part of getting the ball into the hole. If you are serious about putting the ball in the hole you need to think about this as your priority.

The opposite of Nick Doherty’s scramble is a golf partner of my brother-in-law’s. The guy spends a fortune on lessons and you can really see the work being put into the swing. It looks nice and smooth as he practices before the first tee. Then he tees up and squirts one down to the ladie’s tee. All his mental energy is sucked out in the mechanics of his swing. I’m sure he hits them sweetly on the driving range but on the course he’s missed the point. Someone must tell him to leave his golf lessons on the driving range and to start playing golf on the course.

So, what’s the objective again?

How to Putt (Like You Mean It).

Putt like you want the ball to go in the hole. I’m sure the bemused French golfers who slide on and off the practice green think I’m crazy as they smack around dozens of balls with absolutely no result as I go through my routine with just the one. One ball? Yes, just one ball. Here’s how the routine goes broken down into sixteen steps…

1. I choose how far out I’m going to attempt the putt (I start at 10 feet and work my way out on different holes to about 60 feet) and I start to read the green. If you are actually playing this is the step where you see where your ball is and you mark it. I mark the ball every time even if I am playing first.

2. I line the makers line at the point I think I need to get over for the ball to break, I go back and crouch behind the ball to see if the aim feels right.

3. I walk to the opposite side of the hole and look at it backwards to see if it still feels good.

4. Two practice swings the same speed as the putt will be.

5. Line up my putter perpendicular to the makers line (I don’t bring one hand in over the other nor do I concern myself with being right or left eye dominant. I have a mark on my putter to which I can verify the straightness of the club head and I have a good eye. I know if I can feel it or not. Sounds blurry but not everything can be explained in life).

6. Look at the hole.

7. Look at the point it’s going to break at.

8. Hands nice and light.

9. The V’s of my thumb and forefinger pointing straight up at me.

10. My feet solid.

11. My eyes over the ball (I dropped a few tees from between my eyes to see if they fell on the ball over the course of the session thanks to Bobby Eldridge for the tip).

12. Swing back to just outside my right foot.

13. Strike through ball.

14. Swing the putter 20% further than the backswing.

15. Head down for a faction of a second.

16. Watch the ball head to the cup.

And that’s pretty much how it goes. Sixteen steps. Most of which take a fraction of a second but all of which are important. If I leave the ball short I start again from the same spot. If I go past the cup it’s okay if I leave myself a gimme (which after wanting it in the hole is the point of each putt). If I under read the green and leave it on the low side I start again. If I leave it high and it’s going to the hole for a gimme it’s okay.

It’s a slow process and you will only hit a fraction of the balls the other turkeys around you will but you will putt more of them in the hole, which is kind of the point. I missed only two on the low side and left only one short. The objective is to two putt from anywhere on the green (sinking a few on the way of course) and to put the ball up to the hole. If you can do this you will kill your partners at the end of the round.

How to Communicate With Padraig Harrington.

Back from practice and I realize more than ever golf is 90% mental and the other 10% is mental. I systematically nailed my first attempt from a number of different distances right to the pin then blew my second attempt with varying degrees of embarrasment before recuperating and leaving the rest of the balls pin high (I hit ten balls per distance). What the…?

I started from about thirty yards out with my sand wedge going up through the clubs and further back every time until I had an approach of about 18o yards which is about as far as I go with my 5 iron. Although I left the first 5 iron attempt on the first cut in front of the pin it was close enough to the green to leave a sensation of having hit the thing correctly. The second I felt all kooky for some reason and I pushed the ball left into a bunker I never go in. Hmm. “Never dwell on a bad shot” and all that so I lined up as if nothing had happened and the following shots I felt comfortable again and busted them up to the green. I did the same thing with the pitching wedge, the nine, and the seven irons. Why this sudden second shot curse?

I can only conclude it’s a message from Padraig Harrington. Paddy is sending me vibes to ensure I fully understand that work will overcome talent and despite my first shots being crisp and close to the pins, my second attempts were being sabotaged by the Irishman to teach me the virtues of humilty.

On the 17th Harrington hit a 5 iron to within 12 feet of the hole. A great shot by anyone’s standards and especially in the context of coming home in the final round of the PGA Championship after having won the British Open. Sergio Garcia launched his tee shot into the clouds over Michigan and wooed the ball down to land on the green so softly I’m not sure the mikes even picked up any sound. The ball gently finished six feet from the hole. It’s the type of shot which you will see in crusty old golf documentaries about twenty years from now. The type of shot which oozes raw talent.

The thing is, Padraig sunk his putt and Sergio didn’t. Padraig won and Sergio didn’t. Padraig sent me a message about how hard work and a dose of humble pie will keep my head down and my handicap respectable. And Sergio didn’t.

I hear you Paddy. Lesson learned.

How to Win the PGA Championship.

Yeah, well the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills had something for everyone I guess. Sun, rain, complaints about the course. I was convinced until yesterday most of the complaining was justified and the stories about groundsmen sneakily raking the deep rough only inches off the fairways towards the tees to make it even harder for the players to blast their way out were rubbing against the grain of the fundamental interest of golf. However, I wasn’t really sure what the fundamental interest of golf was but I have more of an idea today.

Championship golf is a test of nerves. It’s not like the golf you and I play. It’s not like the golf you and I play even if it’s for 5 bucks a hole. It’s how a player can keep their head over 72 holes, not tremble in the short game, block out the thousands of people watching, not overdrive the fairways, get out of the sand, not land it in the water, not land it on the drinks tent, etc, etc. First and foremost it’s about a human battling with itself.

After all the bitching in the first couple of days about the preparation of Oakland Hills I thought okay, I agree the public want to see the pros with real chances of sinking birdies and want to see the players fighting with themselves to stay in the hunt. It shouldn’t just be about the course. It shouldn’t be about the players fighting against the fact the course is so tough it’s just not fun anymore.

“It’s such a tough golf course that they don’t need to trick it up,” Robert Allenby said. “The fairways are running 30 to 40 yards. The greens are like concrete. It’s not enjoyable to play. They’ve taken an OK golf course and turned it into a lot of crap.” Well that’s telling ‘em. Lee Westwood also had a moan, “I can’t think of a reason why they would do it (rake the rough) other than to irritate the players,” said Westwood, whose round included five bogeys, one double-bogey, and no birdies. “[The rough] is five inches long. Why brush it back at us? It makes no sense. People want to see birdies, and they have not seen me make any. I can’t see anything wrong with being 9- or 10-under-par for the week.”

But what about the British Open? What about the intial spirit of the Royal and Ancient where gentlemen would put on their Sunday best after a hot toddy and a fortifiant to brave the howling winds lashing off the North Sea armed only with a handful of hand hewn mallets? What about the gorse bushes and spinifex in the middle of the fairways? Or the bunkers so deep any normal person would readily accept a double bogey in exchange for having the embrassement of perhaps never making out of the damn hole in the ground. What about all that? That seemed hard to me.

The other problem is Padraig Harrington shot two final rounds of 66 to win at 3 under the card. Okay there was the guy from Argentina who shot a 65 on Saturday in proabably his most perfect round ever but like a thousand others before him couldn’t follow it up on Sunday but it was the British Open winner who followed up by winning the PGA. It wasn’t won by someone by default staying at even as everyone lost their balls in the rough. It was won by a solid major winner with a succession of solid rounds, keeping his head and gritting his teeth.

So who’s right? Probably no one and everyone. It seems to me golf will always be about fighting internal monsters and not external ones even if they are called Oakland Hills and even if they have the nickname.

How to Chip In With An Eight Iron (then watch ants).

Golf is cruel and no one is immune from ridicule. I went to the putting green and as is my want I started by pulling out the sand wedge and dropping five balls about ten yards off the green to prepare to start my chipping routine. My five year old son, Oscar pulled out an 8 iron (because he thinks the number eight is cool) and took out six balls (because he always has to have the most of everything, because he’s five).

I did some wrist excercises and swept a few practice swings across the fringe to loosen up and to check how hard the ground was whilst Oscar crushed a couple of ants with the club discovering he was more agile with the handle end than the club head end.

I lined up as if the British Open depended on my first chip and skulled it across the green. Oscar lined up wonkily with my eight iron (from a little farther out because that’s where the ants were) and chipped it onto the edge of the green where it rolled perfectly for twenty yards before breaking right and rolling for another ten before dying in the hole. He threw both hands in the air, waved to the imaginary gallery (like on TV) and put the iron back in the bag.

“What are doing?” I asked like a dumb adult.
“Didn’t you see? I put it in the hole. I’m finished,” he replied like a wise ass kid and sat down under a pine tree to find more ants.

As much as I consoled myself with Phil Mickelson’s skulled chip across the 17th yesterday at Oakland Hills (watch the skull and the Day 2 Wrap here) I would have preferred to have put my wedge back in the bag after holing out and to have joined Oscar under the damn tree with the ants.

How to Putt Slowly and Hear Birds Singing.

I’ve just come back from the practice green where I spend the better part of two hours putting and chipping from the fringe. If you are serious about getting your handicap down then this is the fastest way to do it (if you aren’t serious then continue to smack big slices around on the driving range with all the other turkeys).

Love him or hate him Dave Pelz has put a lot of time and thought into a number of differences between pros and the rest of us. Pelz is percentages kind of guy who works players short games and as much as it may take some of the romanticism out of the aura which surrounded Phil Mickelson, one of the feelingist feely type of players, their work together paid off big time for Phil. So, one of these differences Pelz targeted is pros will miss the majority of their putts past the cup whereas the rest of us leave them short. Why? Probably because pros are attacking the hole under the old adage “never up, never in” and the casual golfer if so scared of whacking the ball past the hole they decide somewhere in their brains that sneaking up on the hole is less scary than trying to put the ball into the damn thing. More surprising (and I’m sure true) is that for every ten putts going past the hole two or three will fall in (of course opposed to zero putts falling in if you miss them short).

I concentrated on chipping the ball from the first cut placing it slightly back in my stance and pushing the follow through 20% further than the backswing. I also concentrated on making every chip count. I then putted from 10 feet to 20 feet lining up every ball in the same way and checking the break from behind the ball and from behind the cup. Every time. I probably hit only about 30 or 40 balls per hour.

I was joined on the practice green at one point by a couple who slapped their putts from one side of the green to the other, one after the other in a frenzy of putting which lasted about seven minutes for about fifty balls putted and sinking precisely 0% of putts hit.

I quietly continued my routine making sure my chips left me with gimmes and my putts ran either into or past the hole. It’s zen and it’s useful. Suddenly I started to hear the birds singing again and knew the golfing gods were smiling down at me.

Try it.

How to Screw Up Your Life.

If you have found this blog the chances are you are well into the process of screwing up your life by the most wicked game ever invented by man – golf.

The idea begins innocently enough and you actually enjoy all the positive things about walking about on pristine fairways on crisp mornings with the sounds of birds tweeting and the real world about a million miles away then little by little you begin to think about your game. You start to replay the rounds in your head, the approach angles, the lies, the putts which lipped out, the drives which started right and finished way right. You have that glazed looked at breakfast wondering if the rain is going to hold off long enough to steal away to the practice green to work on some chipping. You start to watch the pros and think “I could have made that”. In short you are screwed.

The good news is you are not alone. There are thousands of people as screwed up as you are out there all hacking craters out of nice fairways all over the world. Like all golfers at some point you will become obsessed by numbers and statistics and what is needed to reduce your handicap. You will compare yourself to your fellow golfer and look at how to shave those precious stokes off your game. With this in mind I’ll tell my objective every round is to break eighty. Now I’m not a pro but I am a decent amateur humble enough to lay down before the golfing gods and understand that my game will always be in constant repair but stupid enough to think that one day I will actually go out and shoot that one blinding round. You know the one. You see the hole like it’s a bucket, every drives bounces down the fairway, and every approach leaves you with a gimme. So although my realistic objective is to break eighty my secret objective is to break the course record.

This is golf nirvana. It’s the vision which drives you to practice in the cold, to putt in the rain and to imagine your backswing at the coffee machine. So join the blog and I’ll try to give some ideas about how I see the game of golf, what I collate from around the net, and about getting the damn ball into the hole.