I must admit, I get lazy with my golf swing and can easily fall into a kind of default when it comes to the top of the backswing. For that is the point when my body needs to stretch to its maximum capacity. And those last few words are most important because what you don’t […]
pace
Shaft Lean and Lag: More important pieces of the compression puzzle
Shaft lean is a sacred cow to tour pros, but is not well known or practiced by handicappers. And when done correctly, it is the main avenue to properly compressing the golf ball off the face of the club. But many handicappers are flippers, a term Lee Trevino uses to describe golfers who flip their […]
What we can learn from…
Sahith Theegala had a great amateur career, won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour, but has never won on the PGA Tour, though he’s been in contention a couple times in this his rookie season. He drives to each tournament. His parents are immigrants from India. Sahith was born in Orange County, California. On Sunday […]
Tiger and Charlie
For me, it was uplifting, in this time of doom and gloom, to see Tiger and his son playing golf at the PNC father/child event, as well as others like 86 year old Gary Player, 82 year old Lee Trevino, ageless Tom Watson, Henrik Stenson and his 11 year old son, and the eventual winners […]
Troubleshooting
We’ve watched Phil get out of trouble time after time. We’ve watched Tiger get out of trouble often. And before these two magicians, we watched Arnold get himself out of trouble. But few of us have the skills of these experts, and practically all of us, handicappers and pros, get into trouble a number of […]
The Element of Distraction and How to Overcome It
I had had a good practice session at the range the day before my round, and had high expectations for a major scoring accomplishment. But right from my first wayward tee shot, I could tell something was amiss, and, sure enough, I shot a rather miserable 47 front nine, pocked by bogeys and doubles and […]
Pace: Find your Model
When I was a kid, one of the pros I admired was Gene Littler who won the U.S. Amateur, scored 29 victories on the PGA Tour, including the U.S. Open in 1961. Gene the Machine, they used to call him, for his smooth, easy, repeating swing. For a time, he was my model for how […]
Learning from Fabulous Phil Mickelson
Taking over five hours, with time between shots and holes, golf requires mental focus, perhaps more than any other sport. From three-foot putts to irons over water to drives down tight fairways, you need to stay focused to insure all your relevant body parts are in sync with your brain’s neurons; for anything out of […]
The Essence of a Good Lesson
As with any instruction, there are lessons which are effective and lessons which are not. I might be a concert pianist today if I stuck with lessons when I was six, but just didn’t connect with the teacher and his methods. On the other hand, my first golf instructor, though far from a top 100, […]