Bob s Living Golf Book

Transcription

1 Bob s Living Golf Book Bob Jones (The Recreational Golfer) August 2017 February 2019 Update Also by Bob Jones: Better Recreational Golf Better Recreational Golf (Left-Hander s Edition) The Golfing Self Available at Amazon Six Fundamentals of the Recreational Golf Swing Available at therecreationalgolfer.com/blog Owings-Lemoine Publishers Salem, Oregon by Bob Jones All rights reserved 1

2 Introduction Good golf is easy. Though no one intends to play golf badly, they do so because of bad habits. This book is about building the good habits that enable recreational golfers to play easy golf, good golf. There is a lot of material in here, much of it either things you have never heard before, or new ways of looking at old things. It has taken me years to absorb all of this, and I am still working on much of it. You won t take it all in during one reading. Browse through the book and pick out what interests you most. But if you keep coming back, you will always see something you didn t see before, or understand it in a new way that will help you play in a new way. This is an evolving document. New things will be added and new interpretations of old things will come along. Check back in every so often to find out what s new! Play well, and have fun. Note: New material is in blue text. Red text indicates major emphasis. Links in red signify forthcoming videos. (D5) refers to section D, topic 5. Illustrations begin on page Contents -- The Nutshell A. Golf Swing Principles B. Pre-Swing Things C. More Swing Things D. Mental Guidance E. Chipping and Pitching F. Putting G. Playing the Game H. Practice and Improvement I. Game Support J. Quotes to Live By -- References -- Illustrations The Nutshell The swing is the basic stroke in golf. Short game and putting do not save you if you take too many strokes to get up to the green (I5). Once the ball has reached the green, the hole must be closed out promptly. That depends on mastering the arts of chipping (E1, E2) and approach putting (F4) A. Golf Swing Principles The movement of the golf club, not the movement of the body, defines the golf swing. When the club moves correctly, the body responds to the requirements of club movement. This is the fundamental principle of the golf swing. When there is something about your swing that isn t working, it s because you are thinking about what your body is supposed to do, rather than thinking about what the club is supposed to do. Modern research by Garbrielle Wulf at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has validated this concept by showing that thinking about what the club is supposed to do (external focus) rather than what the body is supposed to do (internal focus) is more advantageous for performance and learning. For peak performance see (D-2). Watch these face-on views swings by Jeff Maggert and Steve Stricker to see how the club is supposed to move. 2

3 A1. Rhythm and Tempo The marriage of rhythm and tempo is the foundation of the golf swing. Rhythm is the relative duration of different parts of the swing. Tempo is the overall duration of the swing the temporal frame inside which rhythm operates. The rhythm of the full swing is three parts back, one part forward to the ball, and is a constant for all golfers. Tempo varies by the individual. Your optimum tempo is the fastest you can swing through impact and consistently hit solid shots off the center of the clubface (C5). If you swing faster than that, you overpower your technique. This does not mean you shouldn t swing fast, but just not faster than you can manage. The rhythm and tempo with every club should be the same. For example, swing your driver and your 8-iron the same way in this regard (C11). Find your personal tempo by starting with a tempo that is too fast and backing down to the one at which your best shots are produced. All the while, be sure your swing is observing the 3:1 rhythm. To maintain rhythm and tempo, start the forward swing at the same speed with which you swung the club back. When the club comes into the ball, there should never be a feeling of acceleration or power. The speed of the clubhead must be left to build up by itself, with no assistance from you. Indeed, it must afterward come a surprise how fast it really moved. If your only concern is hitting the ball with the center of the clubface, the right feeling will be achieved. When playing, take a few air swings every so often to keep rhythm and tempo in line. We tend to get excited as the round progresses. Many instructors and professionals do not understand the meaning of these two words. If you read or hear the word rhythm when you are being advised to swing faster or slower, tempo is what is meant. A2. Aim Your Swing Before you take the club away, imagine a line on the ground about six inches long, centered on the ball, and pointing toward the target. Tell your unconscious mind to take the club back along that line, and swing through on that line. A3. Swing the Club With Both Hands The club transmits the sensation of its movement to the body through the hands. The hands then tell the arms how to move, and the arms tell the body how to turn. For this to happen, the two hands must act as if they were one unit. Feel, when you swing, that your hands have been melded together and their separate identities have been lost. A4. The Length of the Backswing Take the club back no more than the farthest point where you still feel a connection between the clubhead and the ball. This is exactly like taking a hammer back to hit a nail. You would take the hammer back only so far as you felt you could hit the nail accurately while giving it a good whack. A5. The Forward Swing Flows From Right to Left To hit the ball forward, every part of your body must flow fully in that direction. 3

4 When your swing turns forward, the right knee moving leftward, through impact, indicates that the swing is flowing leftward as it should. A6. The Hands Lead the Clubhead at Impact In the forward swing, the hands must arrive back to the ball before the clubhead does (Figures 1 and 2). No good golfer fails to do this. No bad golfer ever does it. If you are getting this right, both the end of the handle and the clubhead are moving to the left through impact. Please see what that means by watching this video tip. Drill: Learn what this feels like by making half swings with a sand wedge, with only your left hand on the handle (right hand if you play left-handed). The keys to mastering the golf swing are A1 and A6. Without these, nothing else you do counts, and there is no way to make up for not having them B. Pre-Swing Things Before the swing starts you are entirely in charge of how you get ready. You must know exactly how to set up to produce your best shots, and set up that same way every time. There are few absolutes in golf, but this is one of them. B1. Prepare Your Mind When you are prepared to hit your shot, and before you step up to the ball, think, Relax. That will clear your mind of distractions and you body will be drained of unwanted tension. B2. The Practice Swing Take two practice swings, not one, at your normal swing seed and in a continuous way. That means swing back, though, back, and through all in one motion. Do not take a break between the two swings. The first swing will be a little bit off, but the second swing will most likely be the one you want to hit the ball with. Now you may get into your stance and hit the ball that SAME SWING. B3. Be in Position By position, I mean the entire the setup: grip, stance, posture, ball position, and aim. You must be in position mentally, too. Your stance and posture combined should feel as if you could stay in that position for a good amount of time, yet it should also create in your mind the potential for powerful movement. You can also feel the coming stroke in its entirety. If your setup does not give you these feelings, that is a sign you have put yourself in the wrong position. Ken Venturi, once said, Good players do not get out of swing. They get out of position. You put them back in position and their swing comes back. B4. Holding the Club When the club is held correctly, your hands and fingers warmly envelop the handle, and you feel that you and the club are partners. Place your left hand on the handle as if you were shaking hands with it. The right hand then covers the left. The pocket formed by the right hand folding fits in a cozy way over the left thumb, and the right little finger rests on the fingers of the left hand, so that in combination the hands come to feel like one working unit (A3). 4

5 Hold the club at its balance point. If you adjust the placement of your hands up and down on the handle near an inch from the top, you will find a spot where the club does not feel heavy or stiff. That s where your hands go on the club. The orientation of your hands, indicated by the direction the Vs created by the thumbs point to, has major responsibility for keeping the clubface square. Pick up a club and wave it gently back and forth in front of you in a wristy way for a few times keeping your hands in front of you. When you stop, your hands will be in the orientation that fits your personal body mechanics. That is what your hands should look like when you grip the club. In addition, the apex of the Vs should be in alignment with each other. Take your grip and have someone (gently) slip a tee between your thumb and hand at the top of each V. The tees should be lined up in a vertical line (Figure 8). Grip pressure must be firm enough so both the club cannot slop around inside your hands during the swing, and so the club will not be jarred by impact. Tighter than that is not necessary. If your grip is too loose, take up the slack with your fingers, not your hands. The hands must stay relaxed to prevent tension from appearing in your wrists or forearms. B5. Stance Stance in golf refers mainly to the placement of your feet. They should be separated by a distance that feels comfortable to the golfer. A stance that is too wide or too narrow can prevent a good swing from operating efficiently. There is little need for the width of your stance to vary with the club you are using. For a normal, straight shot, a line connecting the heels (not the toes) should be parallel to the line from the ball to the target. Stances with the left foot set back (open) or the right foot back (closed) are to be avoided in this case, but based on your swing, an altered stance might be advantageous Experiment with drawing back one foot or the other an inch or less to see if it makes a difference for you. The feet can be angled outward slightly, but too much or too little adversely affects how the body turns. Distribute your weight evenly over the soles of your feet, favoring the weight a bit forward (C1). Old instruction books advocate placing the weight back on the heels. Do not do that. Practice placing your feet to come down in the same spot underneath you every time you take your stance preparatory to a swing. You can use a four-foot metal ruler to help you with this. B6. Ball Position When the ball is always in a different place at address, the same swing won t hit the ball the same way. For balls hit off the ground, the ball should be in the spot where you get ball first-ground second contact (A6). That spot is one or two inches behind the bottom of your swing. When using a driver, tee the ball so the front of it is just inside the heel of your left shoe. Find out where these positions are and memorize them. Your posture (B5) determines how far away you stand from the ball. Take a few swings without a ball and observe where the clubhead passes over the ground in front of you. That s where the ball goes. This distance varies with the length of the club. In general, 5

6 you want the ball at a distance where you can stand as upright as possible and not have a feeling of reaching for the ball. Reaching might feel like a more powerful position to be in, but it only pulls your body out of the position it needs to be in to make your best swing. Avoid the tendency to place the ball more forward and farther away from you as the round progresses. You do this because it feels like you re setting up for a more powerful strike, but all you re doing is getting yourself out of position (B3). B7. Posture Good posture allows the swing to flow easily. Work on it and do not take it for granted. First of all, stand up straight. There should be no stiffness in the upper body or shoulders. When you bend over, bend from your hip joint, letting your knees bend as well, but not too much. Do let your abdomen collapse. You should feel like you are still standing tall with your hips high. Your neck can relax a little bit. The line going across your shoulders should be parallel to a line going across your hips. Your posture over the ball should not feel stiff or studied. It should feel light, easy, and full of the potential for movement. B8. Getting Into Your Setup Get into your setup and aim yourself at the same time. Do it this way. Stand behind the ball and sight across it toward your target. With the club in your right hand, step to the left (to the right if you play left-handed), still looking straight ahead. You will now be looking at a spot in the distance to the left of the target (to the right of it if you play left-handed). Walk directly toward that spot. When you get to the ball, and while still looking at that spot, turn to face the ball. Now you may look at the ball, put the clubhead on the ground behind the ball, and place your left hand on the club. Check your aim by looking at a spot in the distance to the left of the target, on the body aim line. Do not look at the target. You must look downrange at where you are aimed, not where the clubhead is aimed. Practice getting into your setup every day. Make sure your grip is correct (B4), your feet are in the right place (B5), the ball is in the right position* (B6), your posture* is good (B7), and they are all the SAME every time you set up. This kind of practice will pay off more than you know. * Posture and ball position change with the length of the club. Practice setting up with different clubs to account for this. B9. Where You Look at Address You will read that you want to look at the back of the ball when you address it. The bottom of your swing must be in front of the ball, when the ball is hit off the ground. Look at a spot about an inch in front of the ball, and think about hitting that spot with your clubhead. B10. Pre-Shot Process Before you hit any shot from off the green, go through the process described below, in order. Assess the variables. What is your lie? How far away is your target? Where is the flagstick? What hazards are nearby it? Where is the safest place to aim for? Is there an elevation difference between the green and your present lie? In which direction does the green slope? 6

7 Is there any wind? What obstacles intervene? How are you hitting the ball today? Find your shot. Put the results of your assessment into your process of visualization (D3). Set up. See B8 for full swings, E3 for pitching, E1 for chipping, and F1 for putting C. More Swing Things C1. Balance Hitting the ball well requires precise contact. If you lose balance sometime before contact, it will be difficult to find the ball again with the precision required. Practice balance by swinging the club with your eyes closed. C2. The Takeaway Start the club back in a leisurely way. Do not snatch it back. Take the club back in what looks to you like a straight line (A2). Take the club back with your hands, not your arms, not your body. C3. The Straight Left Arm The straight left arm means it stays in the same shape from takeaway through impact that it had at address. C4. Elbows Let your elbows have a feeling of connection at address. Let them keep that feeling throughout the swing. C5. The Center of the Clubface Your score is strongly related to hitting the ball on the center of the clubface for any shot. This is golf s most important skill. club into impact with your hands (A6). Full Swing Drill: Hit balls with a 7-iron at 30 percent of your normal swing speed. Once you can make centered contact consistently, move up to 50 percent, then 70 percent. You will be surprised at how far the ball goes even at these slower swing speeds when you hit it on the center of the clubface. C6. Don t Hit Down, Don t Hit Up Do not hit down with your irons or up with the driver. Swing the same way each time and let ball position and loft take care of the ball s trajectory. C7. The Depth of Your Swing The depth of the swing refers to where, in relation to the ground, the lowest point of the swing is. That depth has to be the same every time to create consistent shots. C8. Is Your Clubface Square? At any point in the swing, to see if the clubface is still square, stop, keep your hands exactly where they are, turn to face them, and drop the clubhead straight down to the ground. C9. Reversing Direction The first move down is a simultaneous turning of the left hip, that begins moving your weight to the left side, and a dropping of your arms, using gravity only, in preparation for their swinging motion through the ball. C10. The Finish At address, feel yourself swinging fully through to a finish that is in perfect balance and faces the spot to which you aimed yourself (B8). Maximize the chance of that happening by moderating your tempo (A1) and leading the 7

8 C11. Applied Tempo It is not necessary to swing your 5-iron faster than your 7-iron to make the 5 go farther. Swing them at the same tempo (A1). As the clubshafts get longer, and loft decreases, automatically increasing distance (G1). This rule applies especially to the driver. Few recreational golfers are willing to accept this fact. Drill: Take out your most-lofted wedge and swing it at your personal tempo (A1). No ball, just swing, and one time only. Go through each club in your bag sequentially, one swing each, all at that same tempo. C12. Swinging and turning The arms, hands, and club swing. The torso and lower body turn. Honor those differences. C13. The Whoosh When your club comes flying through the impact zone, it makes a whooshing sound. You hear this best when you re not swinging at a ball. That sound should occur when the club arrives at the spot a bit past where a ball would be. You might read that your clubhead should reach its maximum velocity [someplace] past the ball. This cannot happen, since the collision between the clubhead and the ball slows down the clubhead considerably (Newton s Third Law), but you should swing as if it would. C14. Hinging Your Wrists When you swing the golf club back, your wrists break, or hinge. There are two kinds of hinging. Put your palms together with your fingers pointing away from you. Now hinge your wrists so your thumbs point back toward you. This is vertical hinging, which every golfer does. Put your hands in the same position as before and hinge the wrists from side to side. This is horizontal hinging, which not every golfer does. The complete golf swing has to include them both. To include horizontal hinging, gradually bend your right wrist back (left wrist for lefthanded golfers), to a comfortable stopping point, as you take the club back. It will take some experimentation to get this right. To see for yourself why this is important, swing back using only vertical hinging, and swing down slowly until your hands are at hip height. Take note of where the clubhead is in space. Start over, and swing back adding horizontal hinging. Swing down slowly and stop your hands at the same place as before. You will see the clubhead is father away from the ball than it was when you used only vertical hinging. The clubhead now has to go a longer way, in the same amount of time, to get to the ball, which means it has to go faster, and it will, with no extra effort on your part. C15. It s One Movement When you re playing, conceive of the swing as one whole movement beginning at takeaway and ending at the finish. Do not think of its different parts, and especially do not think of impact. Never think of hitting the ball. Let that just happen D. Mental Guidance D0. Preparatory to All Mental Guidance For the mental part of the game to work for you, you must develop your mind in a structured way. Knowing how to concentrate is a skill that takes practice, just like hitting a 8

9 golf ball does. The method of developing your mind is explained fully in my book, The Golfing Self. Please see that book for instructions. D1. It s the Swing, Not the Ball One thing that makes golf so difficult is the ball. Your job is to swing the club. The club s job is to hit the ball. D2. Swing Thoughts When you are conscious, your mind will be thinking about something. This is how the mind works and you can t change it. All you can do is have it think about the right thing in the circumstance. The only thought to have before you begin to swing is to relax (B1). Maintain the feeling that thought brings about throughout the swing. Putting your mind on anything else is detrimental. If a technical swing thought comes into your head, that is a just sign you have not truly relaxed your mind. Do not listen to anyone saying it is all right to have a technical swing thought. They are wrong. D3. Visualization Visualization invests you with the ability to find the right shot. But it is not picking a shot you like and seeing it projected it outward to the course. It is exactly the opposite. Once you have control of a variety of shots from the tee, fairway, around the green, and on the green, the course can start speaking to you. Look in the direction you want to hit the ball, without analyzing, and a particular shot will present itself back to you as well as a feeling of how to hit it. These feelings emerge on their own when your mind is calm and focused. They cannot be made to happen. This feeling is often accompanies by a palpable feeling in your abdomen. New research shows that the enteric nervous system, located in the gut, communicates emotional states to the brain. It could also be a center of unconscious perception. Once you have felt this shot, do not bring it into your conscious mind to analyze it or evaluate it. That will destroy the union between yourself, the club, the ball, and the course. You will be back where I started. Ride on that feeling. Step into your stance (B8) and play the shot without hesitation. This process of visualization applies everywhere on the course, from tee to green. You look and let the course bring the right shot back to you, along with the feeling of how to hit it. The right shot for you is out there, and by looking with an open mind, it will be made clear to you. Instead of Be the ball, like Ty Webb said in Caddyshack, I m saying, Be the course. Even though this method is based on intuition, it is grounded in technique. You will never see a shot you don t know how to hit. That s a reason right there for expanding your shotmaking skills. Make it a habit to visualize every shot you hit, even at the practice range, or on or around the practice green. D4. Pressure Pressure requires four conditions: - You have to perform at your highest level. - You only get one chance. - You judge the price of failure to be high. - You don t really know what you re doing. Remove pressure by: - Reveling at the chance to perform at your highest level. 9

10 - Seeing this shot as just another in the series of shots you re hitting today. - Understanding there are things in life to fear, but missing a five-foot putt is not one of them. - Practicing so you do know what you re doing. Never practice in such a way that you put pressure on yourself. Golf is hard enough already. Practice playing pressure-free golf. D5. Start Your Swing In Your Mind A golf stroke begins with movement of the mind, not of the body. Get your mind ahead of the body from the start by creating a feeling of movement in your mind before you move your body in any way. This is a generalized feeling of movement, not specific to your swing, but of which the physical start of the swing is its actualization. D6. The First Shots of the Day The first shot of the day should not be a difficult one. Take a slightly slower swing with a slightly shorter backswing. Don t go full out until you ve settled in to the round. Likewise, the first shot off the fairway can make you uneasy because of the ground. Take one more club and put a gentle swing on the ball. D7. Play With a Positive Mind Stand over the ball knowing that this shot is going to turn out well. If you don t feel that, your visualization was faulty (D3). Enjoy your good shots; ignore the bad ones. Make no judgements until you get up to the ball and see what s next. If you have a run of good holes, there s no reason why you can t have keep having them. When the round is over, ask yourself, are you happier now than you were at the start? Did your playing partners enjoy having you in their group? Are you at peace with the way you played? If your answers to these questions are yes, you had a good day. D8. End-Gaining 3 Many golfers try for a result directly rather than follow the best way to achieve that result. This is called end-gaining. It is chasing a result instead of following a process. The insidious habit of end-gaining prevents you from playing your best golf. This means, for example, trying to hit the ball farther rather than practicing a swing that hits the ball farther. Or it means trying to hit the ball straighter rather than practicing a swing that hits the ball straighter. The end-gainer keeps doing what feels right, but which is functionally wrong, instead of doing what is functionally right, but which, because of lifelong habits, feels wrong or ineffective. Even though we might know intellectually what we should be doing, the familiarity of habit forces us into the same mistakes again and again. Find out what is right then practice it over and over until it feels comfortable and right, even it it doesn t at first. Remember that when you hit a bad shot it s because one of the known principles of good ball striking was missing. Go back to doing what is right. Do not try to fix what you think went wrong. D9. Talk To Yourself Before you hit a shot, try telling yourself, out loud, what you re going to do with it. Maybe in not so loud a voice that everyone hears it, but out loud so you can hear yourself. For example: I have a 6-iron. The pin is on the 10

11 right, but it s behind a bunker, so I m going to play for the center of the green and take my two putts. By doing this you are giving your unconscious mind the orders you want it to carry out. If you say no more to yourself, it will. D10. How Not to Drive Yourself Nuts Hit an easy shot with a simple outcome. Don t make any shot a big deal. Just get an idea, check that it s a good one (D9), and hit the ball with no worries (D4). Then, After you hit this shot, don t think about it, good or bad, and don t think about the next one until after you ve arrived at the ball. Spend the interval schmoozing with your buddies (D7). When you get to your ball, go back to step 1. When the last putt is down on the final green, then you can add up your score. Before then it s not important. D11. Relaxation Relaxation is a mental attribute, not a physical one. Relaxation begins in the mind and is reflected in the body. Only when you mind is relaxed can you perform at your best. The major indicator that your mind is relaxed is that you feel confident when you re about to take the club away The next two sections cover the game from about 80 yards in. The point is to get the ball as close to the hole as possible or even in it. Though you will never have a professionallevel swing, there is no reason why you can t develop a professional-level short game. Begin by mastering the basic strokes of each shot type (E1, E3, F2). From that point, get playing lessons to learn a bagful of shots that give you a solution to any problem around the green (H10). Though the game from close in is art, the more of it you can reduce to calibrated technique, the more certainty and less guesswork you will give to yourself in applying your art. (E4) E. Chipping and Pitching E1. The Chipping Stroke Chipping is the easiest shot to get good at, and the one that pays off the quickest in lowering your score. Start off by getting a lesson on how to hit this shot. Go through this process when you chip: Preliminaries: Read the green. Plan a chip shot as if it were an approach putt, because it will roll across the green the same way. Aim the shot carefully. There s no reason to get the distance right but end up three feet to one side. Setup: Grip down to a place right next to the metal shaft. This gives you maximum control of the clubhead. Let the handle rest softly in your hands, and keep it that way throughout the stroke. Lean slightly to the left, with the ball in the center of your stance. Your feet can be close together. Relax your mind. This is an easy shot. The stroke: Think only of brushing the sole of the club over the top of the grass, just as you do with your practice swings. The lower body can turn, but not too much. Do not hit with your right hand. 11

12 Keep the club low to the ground and the clubface square to the target on the followthrough. Keep your upper arms against your sides throughout the stroke not pressed together, but lightly touching. The important things are to make the length and speed of the stroke the same, and to hit the ball on the same spot of the clubface every time, E2. Chipping Strategy Use the same stroke with different clubs. Pick your club based on the total distance to the hole, not the ball-to-green distance and the green-to-hole distance as you frequently hear. Strive to chip past the hole. Chips that come up short never go in. Always leave the flagstick in when you chip. If the hole is near a slope, chip to a place that ensures the ball will not run down the slope and away from the hole. Sometimes that means not aiming at the hole. On the other hand, chip to leave the ball in a spot that leaves you with an uphill putt to the hole. These two rules seem contradictory. There is a time and place for each one. Consider using your putter when the ball lies on closely mown fringe on level ground, or a hybrid club if there is an upslope to be negotiated. When the ball is sitting up in higher grass, no more than two feet from the fringe, you can still use your putter if the grass is not so thick that it will grab the ball. If the ball is sitting down in a cuppy lie, take out a lofted wedge and chop down gently on the back of the ball. Chip with a more-lofted club when the green slopes away from you, or the green is above your feet. Chip with a less-lofted club when the green slopes toward you, or the green is below your feet. When chipping off a downhill lie, put the ball outside your right foot and think of chopping down lightly on the back of the ball with your most-lofted wedge. Do the same for a cuppy lie. When chipping from an uphill lie, swing underneath the ball directly into the slope. As the slope adds effective loft to the club, use a less-lofted club than the distance would indicate. You will encounter three basic lies when chipping out of greenside rough. (1) In rare instances a ball can be perched on top of the grass. Hit this chip with an 8-iron, using your putting stroke. Be careful not to disturb the grass in any way lest the ball fall down into it. (2) When the ball is sits halfway down into greenside rough, poke your finger down into the rough to the ground to determine where the bottom of the ball is in relation to the ground so you don t fluff the ball or blade it. Chip out with a sand wedge using your normal greenside chipping stroke. Be sure to follow through. (3) The ball can be resting all the way down on the ground. Using a lob wedge, take the club back sharply upward and swing down steeply with a very wristy stroke, in an attempt to thump the ground underneath the ball with the sole of the club. You can t really do this, but when the sole hits the ground just behind the ball, it will slide underneath the 12

13 ball and pop it out. This shot takes a lot of practice. If you have to chip over something, like a bunker, but stop the ball quickly, play the ball back of center. When the club returns to impact, hit the ball firmly and hold the position of your wrists do not release them. End the stroke with the clubface pointing straight up to the sky. If you have to chip under something, like a tree branch, then over something, like a bunker, and stop the ball quickly play the ball along the inside edge of your right foot. Hit down sharply on the back of the ball with a sand wedge. The follow-through will be very short. Because the ball is back in your stance, it will fly low, and because you hit it sharply, the ball will have extra spin. Aim a bit to the right of your target, because the ball will go left of where you are aimed. E3. Pitching Pointers Think of a pitch shot as tossing the ball onto the green for two putts. This attitude makes the shot a lot easier to execute. Go pinhunting only after you get really good at it. Play the pitch like a giant chip. Set up as for a chip but with your feet wider apart. When the club comes through the ball, think of sliding the sole of the club underneath the ball. You slide the sole over the grass in your practice swing, so do the same thing when you hit the ball. There is no need to hit down with the leading edge of the clubhead and take a huge divot with a pitch. If you have a tight lie, make the same stoke, but be looking an inch or so in front of the ball instead of at the ball. This will prevent you from blading the ball. Having a wedge with four degrees of bounce makes this shot much easier to hit. Keep your grip pressure light throughout the stroke. Swing easily. Let the club do the work. If possible, do not take a full swing with a wedge. From short distances, accuracy both in direction and distance is what you re striving for, and part swings do a better job of that. Sometimes you want to hit a pitch that runs. Use a lesser-lofted club and hit the ball easily with a sweeping stroke. The combination of less loft and an easy hit keeps spin off the ball, allowing it to run when it lands. To hit a pitch that stops quickly, use a morelofted wedge and swing faster (speed=spin). Hold the club at the very end of the handle. Sometimes a pitch is the wrong shot to play. If you have a wide open look at the green from no more than about 50 yards, take out an 8- iron and hit a chip-and-run, which is a much easier and safer shot. E4. Calibrate Your Short Game Chipping: Select your chipping clubs. Hit ten balls with the each club, using the same swing. The center of the cluster is the calibrated distance of chip with that club. Repeat with the other clubs. Pitching: Create three partial swings, a short one, a half swing, and a 3/4 one. Practice these swings so each one is consistently long. Select your pitching clubs. Take one and hit some balls with the short swing. Measure how far they go. Do the same with that club using the half swing and the 3/4 swing. Now you have three guaranteed pitching distances for that club. Repeat both exercises with each of your other pitching clubs. Get a 3x5 card and write down the chipping distances, by club, on one side, and the pitching distance, by club and swing, on the 13

14 other side. This card goes into your bag for reference when you play. Every now and then check a few club and distance combinations to make sure your pattern is holding up. E5. Bunkers There s no good way to describe how to hit out of a greenside bunker. See a pro, get a lesson, and practice. First learn how to get the ball out and onto the green so you can start putting. Once you re good at that, go have another lesson to learn how to hit the ball different distances. But if all you can do is hit the ball twelve yards out of the bunker every time, that will be enough. From a fairway bunker, take a wider stance than usual. Swing back and through only with your arms and shoulders. Keep your lower body movement to a minimum (but not frozen), especially your feet. Nip the ball off the surface of the sand, disturbing only a few grains after the ball has been struck. The shot that pros do think is difficult, the 40- yard bunker shot, isn t all that hard, in my experience. Play it like a fairway bunker shot, with an 8-iron and a half swing, and again, just nip the ball off the surface of the sand F. Putting F1. Look at the Hole Look at the hole when you hit putts under about 20 feet in length. Beyond that distance, use TAP (F4) and putt with a traditional stroke. There is a tendency when putting to be concerned about how the stroke is to be made. Looking at the hole eliminates that tendency so the golfer can concentrate on the job at hand, which is to get the ball in the hole. The stroke will take care of itself. F2. General Putting Principles When setting up, it is easier to square up the putterface to the starting line with the blade in front of the ball. The ball can interfere with your visual sense of alignment. After you have lined up the putterface you can lift it over and behind the ball. Place the ball between the center of your stance and the inside of your left heel, never back of center. Place the ball in the same spot every time. Extend your right index finger down toward the ground. Make the stroke by imagining you are drawing a straight line, back and forth, on the ground with your finger. Always take a look from behind the ball, especially with short putts. Find a spot on the green a few inches in front of the ball on your starting line. If you make that two-inch putt, you ll make the three-footer. This eliminates the need for using an alignment mark on your ball. Do not ease a short putt toward the hole. It should approach the hole at the same speed as a twelve-footer would. Keep the process simple and putt without delay. Once you re ready, step up to the ball, line up your putter, and go. Just as with a full swing, the only thing on your mind should be the feeling of confidence (D1). Hit short putts without expectations. By thinking to yourself, I just can t miss a putt this short, you increase your chances of missing. And never, never, let the score you will make if the putt goes in, or does not, cross your mind. 14

15 F4. Triangulated Approach Putting The large majority of three-putt greens occur from leaving the first putt too short or too long rather than too far to the right or left. Triangulated Approach Putting (TAP) solves the distance problem. From a given distance, if the only distance generator is the length of the stroke, there is only one length of stroke that will get the ball to the hole. Refer to Figure 4. Walk to a spot (the apex) halfway from the ball and the hole, and nine feet (three steps) away at a right angle to the left of the ball-hole line (the baseline). After only a bit of practice, you ll be able to walk directly to this spot. Take practice stokes while looking back at the ball. When the putter touches an imaginary line from your eye to the ball (the eyeline), make that stroke a few more times and notice the particular stretching sensation you have in your lower torso on the backswing or perhaps the way your arms brush your torso. Once you ve found this sensation, and it should take only three of four strokes to find it, walk up to the ball, set the putter down, and make a few practice strokes that recreate the sensation you found, then stroke the putt with the same feeling. IMPORTANT: Do not think. Hit the ball. think instead, Make the stroke, If the putt goes downhill, or if the greens are faster than the ones you practice on, place the apex at a spot short of halfway to the hole. If the putt goes uphill overall, or the greens are slower, the apex is somewhat beyond the midpoint of the baseline. A key external factor is the putter you use. Place the apex closer to the baseline if you are leaving putts short, or farther away if they are all too long. If you change putters, you will need to relocate the apex. TAP depends on keeping internal factors constant: hitting the ball off the sweet spot consistently, swing tempo is always the same, and the sole distance generator is the length of the stroke. Read the putt to find your line Before you begin the TAP procedure. That is so you can set up to the putt, align the putter and your stance, and hit the putt without delay while the feeling of the stroke is still fresh with you. This method works best for putts of about 20 feet and longer. Gauge shorter putts by looking at the hole while you putt and trusting your unconscious mind to sense the right stroke to make. You can also leave the pin in to help you with distance control (F7). F5. Putting Strategies Golf is a two-putt game. Getting those two putts starts before the ball is even on the green. From the fairway: Play into the green so your first putt is uphill. If the pin is in back, take one more (lesslofted) club and hit the ball to the middle of the green with an easy swing so the ball flies low and runs when it lands. If the pin is in front, play a higher shot that lands and stops quickly, or play short of the green for an uphill chip and an uphill putt. There might be a hole or two on a course that slopes from back to front so severely that you never want to be above the hole. On greens like this, arriving (G2) is not advised. When a green slopes markedly to one side or the other, try to be hitting into it from the side of the fairway the green slopes toward. For example, if the green slopes from right to 15

16 left, hit your approach from the left side of the fairway. If you can fade the ball into the slope (in this case), even better. On the green: When hitting a long breaking putt, imagine a line going from your ball straight to the hole. Do not let the ball cross that line before it gets to the hole. Double-breaking putts can be thought of as two putts in one. Read both breaks, and notice where the switch occurs. Your goal is not the hole, but a spot near the switch where the ball can catch the second break with enough speed for the green to deliver it to the hole. Since the ball will be rolling fast over the first part, play that part of the putt for less break than it looks. Find a practice green that lets you hit double-breaking putts. They really aren t that hard once you understand how to manage them. When putting on a tiered green from the higher tier to the lower tier, pick a spot on the edge of slope on the fall line to the hole. Hit the ball so it gets to that spot with just enough turns left over to catch the slope and roll straight down to the hole. When putting from the lower level to the higher level at an angle to the slope, the ball will not go to the hole in a straight line. Its path will get deflected across the slope in the direction it is crossing the slope. For a putt travelling up the slope from left to right, for example, you must compensate by moving the starting line a bit to the left because cross-slope movement adds deflection to the right. Greens that are in first-class condition lend themselves to die putting. If your touch is good, play the ball to die at the back of the cup. Greens of lesser quality can be bumpy around the hole, knocking a slowly rolling ball off line at the last moment. On greens like this, get the ball to the hole with some speed left over. It is never wrong to leave a 30-foot putt a foot short. It is never right to leave an eight-foot putt an inch short. The rules now allow the flagstick to be hit by a putt without penalty. Leave the flagstick in as often as you can there is no downside. It gives you a target to aim at for shorter putts. For medium-length putts it gives you a better feeling for how far away the hole is. If the ball hits the flagstick and bounces away, it was likely going so fast it would not have gone in the hole anyway and ended up a long way from the hole. F6. Reading the Green Get a secure sense of how fast you like the ball to be traveling when it gets to the hole. Plan to have the ball approach the hole that fast regardless of the length of the putt. This speed defines the line to the hole for breaking putts. Read putts over about fifteen feet from the hole only to get the ball close to the hole. You don t expect to make putts that long, so don t stress too much over them. Pay the most attention to the last four feet, because the ball will be moving slower then and be more affected by any slope. Read shortish (~12 feet and under) breaking putts in the following way (refer to Figure 3) with this method, taken from the book, Vector Putting, by H.A. Templeton. Find the zero-break line, which is the line going through the hole and straight down the slope, by walking below the hole in its vicinity. You will at first sense you are walking downhill, but when you sense you are walking uphill, you have crossed, and thus found, the zero-break line. 16

17 The spot to aim your putt at will be on this line but extended on the uphill side of the hole. The location of that spot (X in Figure 3) depends on the speed of the green, the amount of slope, and length of the putt. X is the aiming point for any putt of that distance given the same slope and speed. Aiming spots are never more than a foot from the hole, and often only a few inches away. They will be closer to the hole when the greens are slower, or the slope is less, or the length of the putt is shorter. Opposite conditions place the aiming spot farther away from the hole. There will be putts you know have break in them, but you aren t sure in which direction. Stand behind the ball, straddling a line to the hole. Take one sidestep to the left and look at the ground. Go back to the spot directly behind the ball, take a sidestep to the right, and look at the ground again. On one of those sides the ground still appears to be flat. On the other side, you can definitely see the ground sloping away from you. Short putts can look level from close up but not be. Take a look from about twenty feet away to see if the overall slope of the green will make a difference. In hot weather, greens will dry out as the day goes on, making greens on later holes play faster than they did on the first few holes. Greens that are always in shade will not speed up as appreciably G. Playing the Game Create a good score by hitting good shots, but they have to be the right shots. Between two golfers of equal skill, the one who knows more about how to play the game will win more often. G0. Quick Playing Tips Off the tee, use the longest club with which you can reliably hit the fairway. From the fairway, pick the club that will hit the ball past the flag with an average shot. If this requires a longer club than you can reliably hit straight, lay up. From close in, get the ball on the green in one shot and trust your putting. For any putt of under feet (you have to determine the exact distance) look at the hole when you putt (F1). For putts beyond about 15 feet, use the Triangulated Approach Putting technique (F4). Realize that some holes are too hard for you. Play them for an easy bogey instead of a hard par. Play from the right set of tees (G7). When you re in trouble, hit the ball back into the fairway and play on (G5). Put more importance on having fun with your companions and enjoying the day than you do shooting a low score. G1. Distance Hitting the ball a long way is a talent that not everyone has. Accept your limits, whatever they are. You attain your maximum distance when you hit the ball on the center of the clubface, using a swing designed to hit the ball a long way, but without trying to hit the ball a long way. (C5, C11, D8). 17

18 It s when you try for more distance, forcing distance to happen, that you often mishit the shot and end up hitting the ball far short of what you are capable of. This is especially true with the driver. This club, just like your irons, is meant to hit the ball a certain distance. Trying for more than that is generally disastrous. Irons are distance clubs, too, but in terms of being the right distance for the shot. How far you hit any iron in an absolute sense has little meaning. G2. Arrive To have a chance at a par, your shot into the green has to get there. It has to arrive. Where it s appropriate, for shots you intend to hit the green, be they approaches from the fairway or pitches from closer in, play to hit the ball past the pin. This is the scoring zone. Most greens are deeper than you think. If you think you have a 6-iron to the pin, hit the 5. That choice guarantees you will fly the hazards around the green, which are usually in front. It allows for hitting less than your best shot, which is the shot we all hit maybe 90 percent of the time. For example, say you can hit your 6-iron 150 yards at the range. When you're playing, do you really hit it that far? You likely hit it 145 yards much more often. That 145 yards, then, is your playing distance, even though it is not all you're capable of with that club. If you always play the 6 from 150 yards you will hardly ever arrive. Ben Hogan once suggested to pick the club that would hit the ball over the green and use one club less than that. Some greens are so steep from back to front that hitting the ball past the hole is the worst thing to do. But that's an exception. Vivien Saunders had this to say about arriving: there is just as much space beyond the flag as in front of it. When you watch players approach the green from the side it seems ridiculous that they re constantly short. In order to improve, try to pass the flag on every single shot you play. Keep a note on your scorecard. Give yourself a point every time your shot to the green finishes on the green beyond the flag. Professionals find this scoring zone far more often than club golfers. Many club golfers soon discover that they never, ever pass the flag. 7 One time, play a round where you pick your club into the green all day as you normally do, but then use one more club, and see what that gets you. Hitting the ball so it goes at the green, instead of to the right or to the left of it, will be a problem we face with every swing. Hitting it far enough should never be. Just use enough club. Arrive. Arriving depends on knowing how far you really hit your irons (I7). G4. Special Shots Sometimes you ll need to hit something other than a standard shot. It could be one that curves, or has a different trajectory, or has more or less spin. Hit these different shots by changing your setup and using your normal swing. The setup adjustments you need to make opening or closing the clubface, moving the 18

19 ball position do not have to be very big to achieve the desired effect. Special shots should not be played on the course unless you have practiced them and you have learned to hit them with confidence. G5. When You re in Trouble Get out. Just get out. Think about the green afterward. The shortest distance to the lowest score is not always a straight line. When you re really stuck, use up one shot to get out of trouble and into a place where you have a clear shot at the green. Hit a heroic shot only if you have practiced that shot and you know you can pull it off in this situation. The best solution to being in trouble is to play away from it. Trouble on the course is to be avoided. That s why it s called trouble! G6. Working the Golf Ball Knowing how to intentionally fade and draw the ball are valuable skills (H20). Unless you are very good at them, do not use these shots to curve an approach shot into a pin. Your range of error is too great. Use these skills instead when you are off the fairway and need to bend the ball around an obstruction to get the ball back in play while still advancing it. When playing into the green, the best strategy is to take advantage of your natural shot shape. If you are a fader and pin is on the right side of the green, aim for the center of the green and let your natural swing take the ball to the pin. If the pin is on the draw side of the green, aim straight for it. Your natural swing will drop the ball on the center of the green, but if by some chance you hit the ball straight, you might end up with a good look at birdie. The reverse applies to golfers who draw. G7. Play From the Right Set of Tees Playing from tees that are too long for you works to the detriment of your game. Add together the length of your average (not best) drive and your average (not best) 7-iron. Play from the tees for which five of the par 4s are this combined length or less. If three or fewer par 4s measure up, those tees are too long for you. No one but you cares which clubs you use. G8. Don t Hit Your Fairway Wood...when you would be hitting into trouble by trying to reach the green with it. Hit a 6-iron and a pitching wedge, two easy shots, instead of a difficult shot followed by who knows what. G9. Life Is Short - Go For It Make your practice worthwhile by playing shots with your improved shotmaking that you would have avoided earlier. The only way to find out if you really can hit a risky shot you have practiced is to try. Playing a full-sized game is how you grow as a golfer. G11. Wind By understanding a few basic concepts, playing golf in the wind should not be difficult. A headwind, contrary to popular thinking, does not knock down the ball. The aerodynamics of underspin against a headwind actually lifts the ball up. Swing easier (remember that speed=spin) with a less-lofted club. 19

20 In a crosswind, use a less-lofted club and hit toward the wind, letting the wind carry the ball back toward the target. In a light tailwind, use the club you would normally use, but with an easier stroke. A strong tailwind will knock the ball down. Hit the ball with a more-lofted club to get the ball up in the air. G12. Uneven Lies When you play off an uneven lie, the ball won t go in the direction your stance is aligned to. Shots played off an uphill lie, or a sidehill lie with the ball above your feet, will go to the left. Shots played off a downhill lie, or a sidehill lie with the ball below your feet, will go to the right. These effects are difficult to counteract. It s best to just allow for them. G13. Have a Plan On a course you play often, you should know exactly how to play each hole. Don t just play one shot after another. On par 4s and 5s know where to hit your tee shot so you have the best look at the green for your second. For your shot into the green, know where it s safe to miss the green and where it s not. As you walk down the fairways when playing a course for the first time, identify these spots for the next time you play there. Of special importance is to write down which club to use on every tee. On some par 4s and 5s, that might not be your driver. Golf is a next shot game. Always have your next shot in mind when you re planning the one at hand. Hit the shot to a place that will make the next shot as easy and productive as possible. G14. Giving Away Strokes Recreational golfers give away strokes by doing these things: Missing the fairway. Playing over water unnecessarily. Not understanding the golf course ahead. Leaving approach shots short. Swinging while lacking confidence. Getting angry. Playing for the distance, not for accuracy. Missing the green with a short shot. Leaving approach putts too long or too short. Not taking lessons. Not thinking about this shot sets up the next one. G15. When to Leave Your Driver in the Bag If the answer to any of these questions is no, tee off with something besides the driver. Is your expected score on this hole a par? Will your average drive get you to a spot where you feel confident about reaching the green? Do you need to hit a driver to have a short iron or less into the green? Is there trouble ahead that would put double bogey or worse into play if you used a driver? Are you hitting your driver well today? G16. How to Warm Up The pre-round warmup should have definite objectives. It s not just hitting balls. Start on the practice green. Chip a ball or two with each of your chipping clubs just to get reacquainted with them. Practice a few 20- foot putts to learn the speed of the green. Practice a few 2-foot putts to see the ball going into the hole. 20

21 Now, take a brisk walk for a few minutes to literally warm up, and then head to the range. Get loose and limber before you start hitting balls. Figure out a routine for this and follow it. Make a few swings with a wedge, with the purpose in mind of finding the ground with the sole of your club. Next, make a few swings with a short iron to find the tempo that feels best today, in the strict context of 3:1 rhythm. Now work on your setup and aim. Step into your stance while aiming at a downrange target. Now you can start hitting balls. Go through the bag, hitting two balls with each club, progressing from shortest to longest. This is the time to confirm your feeling of tempo and rhythm. Practice special shots you know you ll have to hit during the round. If there s a corner off the third tee you can cut, practice hitting that shot a few times, along with other out-of-theordinary shots that will help you take advantage of this particular course. End by hitting a few easy shots with an 8- or 9-iron. These easy swings, free of mistakes. Create the swing feeling you want to take with you to the first tee. You re ready. Now go have fun. G17. How to Play Par 3s Always tee up the ball, by just enough to get the ball off the ground. Never pass up the chance to give yourself a perfect lie. Determine the yardage to the pin and add seven yards. Say the distance is 148 yards. Your 150-yard club will be short. Take one more club. This is especially true if there is trouble in front of the green you have to clear. Consider laying up on a long par 3, chipping on, and taking two putts. This prevents you from taking a 5. The night before you play, spend some time writing elegant, artistic 2s to put on your scorecard the next day. If you respect the 2, you will be rewarded. I m not kidding about this. G18. How to Play Par 4s These are the hardest holes. Being in the fairway off the tee is more important than being long off the tee. Your second shot must arrive. Make sure you have plenty of club in your hand (G2). Realize that some par 4s are too hard for you. Play those holes to get on in three and take two putts. G19. How to Play Par 5s These holes are where you make pars. Get the ball in the fairway off the tee. Length is not important. Advance the ball with your second, to leave an easy shot into the green with your third. A par-5 hole is long, but always remember you have three shots to get there. G20. In-Round Swing Maintenance See sections A1, B8, and I6. G21. How to Break 90 or There is aa area in your game where you in particular always give away strokes. Get that fixed. Then: 1. Do not play from tees that are too long for you (G7). 21

22 2. Get your tee shot in the fairway. Leave your driver home. 3. Do not hit more than a 7-iron into a green unless there is no trouble around it, then you may hit up to a 5-iron. 4. From inside 60 yards, get the ball on the green in one shot. Aim for the center, not the pin. 5. Cut down three-putts. See TAP (F4). Breaking 100: Nine bogeys + nine doubles = 99. On a 6,200-yard course, you could never hit a shot farther than 140 yards and still break 100. Breaking 90: Four pars + eleven bogeys + three doubles = 89. On a 6,200-yard course, you could never hit a shot farther than 160 yards and still break 90. G22. Breaking You need to have a better swing than you did when you broke 90 a much better one. Straight shots with clean contact must be your expectation. Then: 1. Do not play from tees that are too long for you (G7). 2. Some holes are still too difficult for you. Play them for bogey, not par. This helps you avoid the double or (egad!) the triple. 3. Learn to hit your driver, but the tee shot in the fairway is still the most important shot. 4. From the fairway, play for the center of the green, not the pin. Do not challenge the green with a longer club than you know you can hit straight. Know where the safe miss greenside is. 5. Getting up and down from greenside must be an expectation (G1, G2). No three-putts from inside 20 feet (F4). No misses from inside three feet (F2). Breaking 80: Par all of the par 5s, half the par 3s, and half the par 4s = 79. G23. Elevated Tees When hitting from an elevated tee on a par-3 hole, take more club and punch the ball toward the green with your pitching stroke (E3). This shot keeps the ball low and gets it on the green quicker. G24. Laying Up Laying up means avoiding distant trouble. For example, if a par-3 hole has water on the right and rear, and a bunker on the left, consider hitting short of the green and chipping on. If you re a good chipper you ll get more 3s than 4s, and never a 5. The same is true from the fairway. Playing short when the green is fraught with hazards saves you strokes in the long run, unless you re close enough to play over the trouble. You don t have to hit a huge layup. If you re a 4-iron away, you could hit a short chip to a spot where you can hit a 7-iron. G25. You Gotta Know Your Limitations Figure out what is the maximum distance you can achieve reliably in two straight shots, one from the tee and one from the fairway, and build your game around that distance. If the hole is longer than that, and we re talking about long par-4 holes, play to your maximum reliable distances and chip on to have a par putt and a bogey at most. Playing this way will put fewer double-bogeys on your card, and a few more pars H. Practice and Improvement We took up golf to play it. Make that your focus. Practice informs play, not the other way around. 22

23 There are three reasons to practice: to learn a skill, to maintain a skill, and to correct mistakes. When you hit balls, be very clear about which one you re doing. If there are drills you like to do that have led you to improvement, do not stop doing them once you achieve your goal. What got you there is what keeps you there. Even concert pianists practice their scales every day. H1. Repeat Ability A number of years ago I read the most honest piece on golf improvement I have ever found. It was written by PGA pro Bob Madsen. Bob gave me permission to reprint it on my blog, and I will summarize it here. Doing anything well is based on being able to do it repeatedly. We re not looking for isolated success, but consistent success, Madsen called it repeat ability. And how do get repeat ability? Madsen says: Here is the recipe. Find something you know you can do and do lots and lots of it. Then, go for a LITTLE, tiny bit more. If you want more repeat ability so you can dazzle your friends and really leave the golf course refreshed, practice succeeding. Succeed over and over and over again. You ve got to work your way up. You ve got to earn consistency. It is well worth the effort. H2. Your Scoring Potential Playing a solo round. Nine holes will do. Take unlimited mulligans, but only one for any given shot. Your mulligan score is the score you could be shooting by practicing. Develop your mind as well as your technique. Take as many practice swings as you like until you feel you are performing your technique properly. Then pick a target and visualize a shot. Remember to aim yourself! Now turn off your thinking mind as you step up to the ball. With that feeling of quiet confidence (B1), swing the club. This is mind training. H4. Targeted Short Game Practice If you play a variety of courses, you know that each course requires a different kind of short game. Short shots you find yourself hitting on course A are not the ones you have to hit on course B. Make note of those shots and learn a short game for each course. H5. Hitting the Ball Straight If a slice or a hook is giving you fits, or even an unwanted fade and draw, you can fix it by taking a careful inventory of what it is you re doing. Go through the following sections in this order to diagnose the problem. Once you ve figured out what the error is, correcting it is pretty easy to do. Orienting Your Hands (B4) Is Your Clubface Square? (C8) The Handle Leads the Clubhead (A6) Ball Position (B7) The Center of the Clubface (C5) H6. Hitting the Ball Accurately An accurate shot is one that goes where it was intended. This is not the same as hitting the ball straight, which means only that it does not curve. Hit the ball accurately by knowing how to hit the ball straight (H5) and then aiming the clubface and yourself (B8), and the swing (A2). H3. Mental Practice When you go to the range to practice, think of it as both a mind range and a driving range. 23

24 H7. Patching Holes Identify the shot that gives you the most trouble and get a lesson to learn how to hit it. Then find another and repeat. After a round is over make a note of the shots you hit poorly that day. Practice those shots so you have them under control for the next time you play. H8. Random Practice One way to practice is to hit ball after ball of the same shot. Repetition. When you keep going after you start making good shots, the quality of your shotmaking can decline because your mind gets dulled by the excess repetition of what researchers call block practice. A better approach is to switch to something entirely different after you have made those first few good shots. Give your mind a new problem to solve. When you ve solved it, move on to a third thing, then back to the first one and so on. This is called random practice. It is more in line with how our brain interacts with the world, and is closer to how golf is played each new shot is different, and you get only one chance at it. Don t get me wrong. This does not mean you don t need to hit a particular shot lots of times to get good at it. You do (H1). I mean don t try to learn how to hit a fade with your 5-iron by hitting 20 of them in a row. You can have some short term success with that approach, but have you ever gotten into a groove and hit one good shot after another and thought Now I ve got it! and after you stopped for ten minutes and tried it again you were back where you started? Instead, hit a fade every third shot or so. In a bucket of 60 balls, you can hit 20 fades, but if they are scattered here and there you will remember how to hit that shot much better than if you hit all 20 in a row. By changing shots often your mind stays fresh because it always has a new task to work on. This allows your concentration to stay engaged, which makes practice more effective. H9. Hitting a Plateau If you have reached a point where you aren t getting any better, you need a new conception of what is possible. Any good teaching pro can take you there. Play with better players so you can see what better play is. Watch what they do that you don t, then find out how to do what they do. H10. Have a Playing Lesson After you have basic skills under control, that is, the ball goes where you intend most of the time, you get better by learning shots, especially ones in the short game. So during the lesson, go out on the course, set up a shot you re having particular trouble with, and say to the pro, What shot should I hit from here, and how do I hit it? You can cover five or six different shots in a one-hour lesson. They will be the most valuable lessons you ever had. H11. Long Game Practice Hit mainly 7-irons. Hit a driver every now and then, never more than two in a row. If you know how, hit a few fades and draws, but don t get carried away. And if they aren t working, stop and do something else. Hit a few high shots. Hit a few low shots. If you re on a grass tee, give yourself a bad lie a couple of times and hit out of it. Do not be shy about teeing up every ball when practicing irons. By taking the ground out of play you give yourself one big thing less to 24

25 worry about so you can focus more on your swing. H12. Putting Practice At home: Hit putts, by putting at a water bottle, from a distance where you succeed 100% of the time (H1). Making every putt builds confidence. Your unconscious mind doesn t know or care that they all came from so close. At the practice green: Practice short putts by aiming at a water bottle that has been placed in the hole. Don t practice medium-length putts all you practice with those is missing. Practice approach putts (~20 feet+) using the TAP method (F4). All this is designed to eliminate three-putt greens, which you do by learning to get the long ones close, and the short ones in. Both skills are important. Practice putting with one ball, wherever you are. This prevents stress on your back, since you don t remain bent over hitting ball after ball from the same spot. H13. Chipping Practice Practice chipping from one spot to holes at different distances until you get up and down four times in a row. Then chip from four spots to one hole to get up and down each time. H14. Practice Swinging, Not Hitting You have heard so many times, It s a swing, not a hit (D1). The best way to practice this is to swing without a ball (H22). H15. Allocating Your Practice Time Give each phase equal time. If you have an hour to spend, hit balls (including a few pitches) for twenty minutes, chip for twenty minutes, and putt for twenty minutes. Within this framework, practice the shots you hit well, to maintain your skill, as well as shots that have been troubling you lately, to get better at them (H24). If you want to get deep into practice, look at this professional practice plan written by PGA pro Neil Wilkins. Adapt it to your needs, do it twice a week, and watch your scores go down. H16. Practice at Home Practice slow-motion swings, feeling the movement of the club and your body s response to it. Make some pitching and chipping strokes, emphasizing brushing the ground with the sole of the club. Stroke a few putts toward a bottle (H12). Hit a few toward a backstop that would go 40 feet, meeting the ball on the sweet spot. All of this takes just a few minutes, but that s enough. H17. Learn to Hit Your Driver The driver is said to be the hardest club in the bag to hit. It should be the easiest. You get to hit the ball off a tee, so the ground is not in your way. The the shaft is long, so you re standing up straighter. The clubhead is big, so it s easier to make contact. I believe the driver is hard to hit because we try too hard to hit the ball hard (G1). A moderate, controlled swing should be all you need. If you take the advice in section A to heart, adjusting your tempo so you hit the ball off the center of the clubface as often as you can (A1), and lead the clubhead into the ball with your hand (A6), and let that swing and the design of the club do the work, i.e., not get greedy, you will learn in short order how to drive straight, high, and far. 25

26 You don t have to hit a lot of drivers to do this, or any, really. Get real good with a 7-iron and then put the same swing on the ball with a driver instead. That s all. Just that. H18. Repeat a Golf Lesson Few people get something right after just one lesson. Do you think the coach of a Tour player mentions something only one time? No, ma am! They work on it lesson after lesson until it s right. So should you. Repeat a lesson and keep practicing until you do get it. H19. Learning a New Short Game Shot The first step in learning a new short game shot is to get a lesson on how to hit it. The goal is to make clean contact and have the ball behave as you want it to. Do not be too concerned about distance or direction right now. Once you have mastered contact, learn how to hit the ball in the direction you want it to go. This should not take too much effort. Finally, learn to control distance. This is the critical part of any short game shot. Getting the distance right is how you get the ball close to the hole. Once you have all three parts of the shot at your command, contact, direction, and distance, you may use it on the course. Practice all of your short game shots regularly. If you neglect them, they will fail to perform. H20. What Every Good Golfer Can Do Every good golfer can do these things. Hit an intentional fade Hit an intentional draw Hit with the ball below your feet Hit with the ball above your feet Hit from an uphill lie Hit from a downhill lie Hit the ball higher than normal Hit the ball lower than normal Hit the ball the same distance with three different clubs H22. Swing Without A Ball Swinging the golf club and hitting the golf ball should be the same things, but for most of us they re not. Swinging without a ball focuses your mind on what you re doing, not what s supposed to happen (D8). The only way to build a repeating swing is to swing the same way repeatedly. Doesn t that just make sense? But how? By swinging slowly. Swing so slowly that you can feel every bit of your swing, so you know that you did or did not hit all the technical points that are important to you, especially A1 and A6. You will feel if this swing was the same as the last one and if it wasn t you ll be able to knowingly correct yourself the next time. H23. Building a Game To have a basic game, get good at these shots: Fairway wood from the tee, to use all the time or at least when your driver is misbehaving. Advancement shot from the fairway of about 180 yards. Shot into the green from 140 yards. 70-yard pitch. Getting out of a greenside bunker. 30-foot chip. 30-foot approach putt. 3-foot putt. H24. Play With Your Own Swing If you are hitting the ball well, leave your swing alone. Resist the urge to try something new to get a bit more out of it. Doing that usually sends you backwards. Of you are not hitting the ball well, get an exact description of the ball flight on your 26

27 poor shots then get a lesson and tell that to the pro. H25. Making a Change When you change something in your swing, you feel a new sensation. Ignore it. Otherwise, you will chase the sensation at the expense of the technique. It usually takes only a little bit of doing something different to make a big difference in the result. Like Harvey Penick said, If I ask you to take an aspirin, don t take the whole bottle I. Game Support I1. Don t Play Faster, Play Efficiently A foursome with an open course ahead shouldn t take more than four hours to play eighteen holes. The few seconds saved by everyone doing little things efficiently on every hole or before every shot add up significantly over eighteen holes. Take clubhead covers off and leave them off. Fiddling with them takes time. Know where everything in your bag is so you can get what you need without delay. Play from the right set of tees (G7). When someone is teeing off and it s your turn next, be standing beside the tee box, ball, tee, and club in hand, ready to go, rather than way over there by your cart. Don t wait for the group ahead of you to clear if you really can t hit into them. On the tee, consider letting shorter hitters tee off first (if they can leave their egos at home). From the fairway, when someone is hitting and you re next, you can begin surveying your shot at the same time the other player does. (Out of courtesy, don t pull your club until the other ball is in the air.) In other words, be ready. You get one, (1), uno, practice swing (B2). Recreational golf is a social game, but have your conversations, when you are walking, and not when the person you want to talk to is getting ready for their shot. Always check the ball you re about to hit to be sure it s yours. After you play your shot, clean your club and put it back in the bag only if you are waiting for someone else to hit. Otherwise, start walking right away, carry your club, and put it away when you get to your ball. If you re riding in a cart, get in the cart with your club and go. If you have hit the ball five times and it s not on the green, pick up your ball and drop it on the green when you get there. If you have hit the ball eight times and it is still not in the hole, pick it up and cease play on that hole. When looking for a ball that might have gone into high grass, remember that the ball is always 20 yards farther back from where you re looking. If someone else s ball might be lost, play your ball first, then go help them look. When you get to the green, put your bag or cart on the side of the green nearest the next tee. Read your opening putt as soon as you get on the green instead of waiting until it is 27

28 your turn to putt. Mark your ball, clean it, and put it back down unless it s in the way of someone else s putt. That way there s no waiting when it s your turn to putt. I see four old guys ahead of me get on and off the green in a hurry, and this is how they do it. Don t spend too much time reading the green. Your first impression is most likely correct. If you use an alignment mark, don t spend too much time tweaking the mark, especially if the putt is a long one for which distance is much more important than line. After your approach putt, putt out. Mark your ball only if you would be standing in someone s line when you hit yours. Falling behind the group ahead of you? To catch up, the first two players to hole out should go to the next tee and tee off, leaving the other two to putt out and handle the pin for each other. If a faster group is coming up behind you, let them through in this manner: Your group tees off, then waits for the following group. That group tees off. Stay at the tee box until that group has hit their second shots. Then your group may start down the fairway. It all comes down to this. Paying your green fees does not give you the privilege of holding up the groups behind you by playing at any pace you choose. By giving back a bit of what we think we might be entitled to, everyone benefits from the overall goodwill that s created. I2. What s In Your Bag? The rules let you carry fourteen clubs, but there is no requirement that you do so. Every club needs to earn its way into your bag. You need a putter. Next would be the longest club you can routinely hit off a tee and into the fairway. That might not be your driver, or even a fairway wood. Pick the club that works(g2). The next club should be the longest club with which you can hit a ball off the ground and get it in the air. From there, fill in down to your pitching wedge as you see fit. You need a sand wedge, but add other wedges only when you clearly you have a need for them and you have learned, through practice, how to use them effectively. A left-handed club (a 9-iron is a good choice) comes in handy when playing a course with deep bunkers or lots of trees. And the ball. There s no such thing as a distance ball. Buy the ones that perform the way you want around the green. I3. Taking Care of Your Clubs The grips on your clubs should always be clean and have a tacky feel. Wash them with warm, soapy water before you play to restore the tacky feel. And while you re at it, clean the clubfaces. Put new grips on your clubs every year. It s cheap and it pays off. I4. The USGA The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the governing body in the United States for rules of the game in regard to tournament golf. It is not, however, in charge of your golf. 28

29 If you never play in tournaments, there is no reason for you to establish a USGA handicap. The Rules tell you how the game is played. Follow them (except for anchored putting). The official rule book, however, is complicated and arcane. If you play by these Rules of Recreational Golf, you will play an honest game and have a good time. I5. Statistics The secret to low scoring is to get the ball up to the green as quickly as possible. Keep these three numbers, by hole, as you play: (1) the number of full swings (include penalty strokes), (2) the number of short shots, and (3) the number of putts. These numbers, and their interactions, will give you a full description of your game. If you have a good memory, when you get home, write down all the stokes you took, and a description of each one. After a few rounds, you will have a clear description of your strengths and weaknesses. I6. Physical Maintenance During the Round Four hours or more is a long time to be engaged in an outdoor athletic activity. You have to take care of yourself to be as strong at the finish as you were at the start. Bring water with you and drink a few ounces on every tee. Research has shown dehydration causes deterioration in physical skills. Fill your container up again at the turn if you have to. Eat while you play. Trail mix with nuts and candied fruit is a good choice. Have a handful every few holes. Eat a breakfast burrito at the turn. Stretch every four holes or so to stay limber during the round. You can stiffen up without knowing it. Stretch again after the round is over to warm down so you don t get stiff. I7. How Far Do You Hit Your Irons? Irons are the scoring clubs. Thus, it is imperative that you know how far, really, you carry each one. Go a driving range and have your iron distances measured with a launch monitor. A 9-, 7-, and 5-iron are sufficient. You can interpolate the others from there. If your calibrated iron distances over time don t seem to be quite right, they are probably too long. Try assigning three fewer yards to each club and see what happens. I8. How Long Is Your Step? It s good to know exactly how long your step is when you walk off distances from sprinkler heads. To find that length, walk around a baseball diamond with 90-foot basepaths, using your normal walk, from home to first, to second, to third, and back home, counting your steps. 120 divided by the number of steps is the length of your step in yards. I9. Good Manners Good manners are based on showing respect for other people and not calling attention to yourself. If you don t do the first one very well, take up bowling. If the second one is hard for you, get into show business. Do not make noise or move around when someone near you is making their stroke. 29

30 If a ball you hit is heading for players in front of you, yell, Fore! Make sure greenskeepers ahead of you are aware that you are about to hit. Check the ball before you hit it to make sure it is yours. Leave your cell phone turned off. Give your attention to the people you re playing with. Be aware of where everyone else s ball is so you don t accidentally get in the way of their shot. Replace your divots in the fairway. Repair two ball marks on the green yours and one other by pushing the edges of the gouge toward the center. Lay the flagstick down on the green. Do not drop it. Tend the pin by pulling it out, then resting it on bottom of the cup liner but against the back side of the hole. Stand at an arm s length from the hole. If the wind is blowing, hold the flag so it does not flap and disturb the person who is putting. Do not step on the line of another player s putt. Mark your ball if it is close to the hole. Do not chip or putt until other players have marked their ball and lifted it. To leave a ball near the hole when others are playing on is called backstopping, and can be penalized. It is also not in the spirit of the game as it could give one player an advantage others players do not have. I10. Avoiding Low Back Pain Low back pain (LBP) in recreational golf is caused mainly by excess stress placed on the lower back because of mechanical flaws in the swing. Narrow the angle between the shoulder line and hip line at the end of the backswing. A large X factor, as that angle is called, places unnecessary stress on the lower back. Take a more upright posture (B5), reducing stress generated by bending over too much. Adopt a finish position that has your back upright, and not bent backward or to the side. Do these five strengthening exercises and these five flexibility exercises regularly. Before the round, warm up properly (G16). Maintain your flexibility during the round and after (I6). This comprehensive but somewhat technical article from the medical literature explains in detail the relation between golf and LBP. It would serve you well to read it J. Quotes to Live By The average golfer s problem is not so much a lack of ability as it is a lack of knowing what he should do. Ben Hogan, Five Lessons To improve your golf the first stage is not necessarily to change your swing, but to learn to do your best swing more often. Vivien Saunders, The Golf Handbook for Women It is true that if you cannot putt you cannot win, for no hole is won until the ball is down but good scores are only made possible by good play up to the green. Percy Boomer, On Learning Golf 30

31 I can outhit many men, much to their embarrassment, for suddenly they are pitting their strength against mine. That s foolish. They aren t competing with my strength; they re competing with the efficiency of my swing. Mickey Wright, Play Golf the Wright Way References 1. Golf Digest, October, Flick, Jim, On Golf. 3. Alexander, F. Matthias, The Use of the Self. 4. Middlecoff, Cary, The Golf Swing. 5. Floyd, Raymond, The Elements of Scoring. 6. Soley, Clyne, How Well Should You Putt? 7. Saunders, Vivien, The Golf Handbook for Women. Figures 3a and 3b are taken from Vector Putting, by H. A. Templeton. All links accessed in October

32 Figure 1. An unidentified LPGA golfer entering the impact zone with clubshaft lag intact. Only if you pass through this position can your hands be ahead of the clubhead at impact as shown in Figure 2. (A6). 32

33 Figure 2. Brooks Koepka at impact with his hands ahead of the clubhead. This is the defining skill of a good golf shot. Even though both Figure 1 and figure 2 depict players driving the ball, the same principle applies to every shot, even the short game and putting. (A6). 33

34 Figure 3. Justin Thomas at post-impact. The release of horizontal hinging (C14) keeps the right palm facing the target through impact, and the clubface square. 34

35 Figure 3a. On a green with a given slope and a given speed, and for a putt of a given length, the aiming spot is the X directly uphill from the hole, not a spot to the side of the hole. The arrow G points in the direction where the ball would roll straight downhill. (F6) 35

36 Figure 3b. Using the length of the putt, and the slope of the green, find the distance the aiming spot is from the hole, in inches. The little numbers are corrections, in inches, for putts above a ball-hole line perpendicular to the zerobreak line (superscript); and below such a ball-hole line (subscript). The numbers are maximums for putts travelling along the zero-break line. 36

37 Figure 4. Triangulated Approach Putting (TAP). Walk to the Apex, a spot halfway between the ball and the hole and about three paces away. Look back at the ball and swing the putter until the clubhead touches the Eyeline. The feeling in your hands, arms, or body is the feeling of the stroke that will send the ball the exact distance to the hole. If the putt is uphill or the greens are slow, go to point A instead of to the Apex. If the greens are fast or the putt is downhill, set up at point B. (F4) 37

38 Figure 5. The vertical distance from the ball to the hole is the distance between parallel lines through the hole and ball perpendicular to the line of the hole. (I7) 38

39 Figure 6. Plug your 9-iron and 7-iron distances (I7) into this chart to determine the distance for the rest of your irons. Notice that as the swing speed gets slower, the yardage gap between clubs gets smaller. 39

40 Figure 7. The forefinger interlock putting grip. 40

41 Figure 8. Tees placed in the apex of the Vs in your grip should line up vertically, regardless of how the hands are oriented. 41