Winter Help

We are extremely fortunate to have a year round golf facility at the United States Golf Academy, so even as Mother Nature decides what type of precipitation she wants to dump on us today, we can at least swing a golf club, and take out some of our frustrations on that little white ball. Over the years there has been a number of theories as to the benefit or detriment of hitting golf balls indoors. We believe it can be very good for your game and the following are some ideas on how to make the most of the “indoor season”.
Avoid Mindless Repetition. There is no real gain from practice without a purpose at any time of the year. Hitting a couple hundred golf balls into a net just for the sake of hitting balls probably does more harm than good. Instead, now is the time to develop that routine you have heard would help but you were never able to accomplish on the golf course. Pick a spot on the net, aim the club at the spot, and then use the club as the reference of your alignment to the ball. Make your swing and watch where the ball strikes the net. Even this simple feedback is beneficial as you relate your setup process to the result. Another good practice is to note where you strike the ball on the clubface. Take a dry erase marker with you and mark the ball on the side closest to the golf club. The dry erase will leave a mark on the clubface so you can see the impact point on the club.
Video Tape Your Swing. Winter is the best time to get with a PGA professional and video tape your swing. As we said earlier feedback is a good thing and nothing points out the flaws like video. A word of caution; make sure the camera or cameras are positioned correctly. If you are looking down the target line make sure the camera is parallel to the target line, directly behind your hands. If the camera is face on it should be perpendicular to the target line and pointed at your sternum. Video taken from positions other than these can give you an inaccurate picture of your swing and lead to improper conclusions.
Practice your Short Game. Now is the best time to get familiar with your wedges. Learn to hit shots with different length swings. Work on using an even tempo. Short game strokes (less than a full swing) have a three beat rhythm. 1 starts the club back. 2 is the transition from backswing to forward swing and on 3 you accelerate the club to the finish. This is also the best rhythm for putting as well. Hitting short shots thinking only of rhythm and tempo will pay real dividends at the end of the season.

Arc or Straight

The Putter Path Myth

The putter-face at impact determines approximately 82% of the direction of the ball moving away from the club. The remaining 18% of the direction the ball leaves the putter is influenced by the direction of the shaft plane as the putter swings through the ball. So the path the putter takes is of much lesser importance than the face angle at impact. However for the player, the perception of the direction of the putt is almost entirely the direction of the path of the stroke. The conflict can come either visually or by feel, but the results are usually the same as diagramed by the illustration at the top of the page. When a stroke starts "off line" it is the effort to correct, by twisting the putter-face or re-routing the putter during the forward swing that causes the miss. Trying to steer the putter in the forward stroke is easily the most frequent reason for a missed putt. If my stroke doesn’t match my perception of the direction I am trying to roll the ball as dictated by our vision, it is our nature to attempt to correct the error. This explains the success of having player not watch the putter as it swings away. They are less likely to react to the path created by alignment and posture and therefore less likely to attempt to correct the stroke. It also explains how for many of our students they are more successful by performing the stroke with their eyes closed. Without the visual influence or interference the stroke performs as it should.

There is also a great deal of misinformation out there due to the efforts to “market” aids and systems that are based on perfect path direction. Most teaching systems are based on achieving a putter path that parallels the intended line of the putt at impact. In general, there are two accepted descriptions of putter-paths, both of which assume a path that at impact has the putter moving in the exact direction of the intended line of the putt. These descriptions are known as the straight back and straight through method, which assumes that the head of the putter moves on a straight path during the stroke. The other method is called the arc. This is a description of the appearance of the putter when it is allowed to move on a natural inclined plane. Both of these descriptions are two dimensional descriptions of a three dimensional motion and the net effect is more confusion than solution. When measured accurately the putter actually does both. The shaft of the putter and the motion of the hands is a straight motion. We define this aspect as the stroke plane direction. The head of the putter, when examined separately moves on an elliptical path when traced in relationship to the ground and in two dimensions. This is because of the fixed length of the player’s arms and the attachment of a putter at a fixed length. As the shaft moves on a straight path along the inclined plane, as the putter head travels along as it comes up off the ground it moves along the plane slightly to the inside of the path of the shaft. The size and shape of the arc is determined by the distance the player is from the ball, the lie angle and length of the putter. The farther away the flatter the shaft plane angle and the more pronounced the arc. Because this path shape is a consequence of the stroke plane direction and the measurement and fit of the putter itself we feel the description of path shape to be of no importance.

Ball Roll

Ths is a video of an average ball strike during a putt. Note the slight backwards rotation of the ball leaving the putter and that the ball imediately rotates forward on contact with the ground.

Putters made Famous

We work extensively at the United States Golf Academy with Mizuno USA along with other companies. As a Mizuno staff professional one of the fun parts of the job for me is the relationship with Bob Bettinardi and his people at Bettinardi Golf. If you aren’t familiar with Bob, he builds putters for the Mizuno Golf, as well as custom work for players on the tour. Occasionally, we have access to the putters from the tour that were not put into play, and we custom fit these heads to our customers at the Academy. These putters are milled from a single block of metal, and are truly works of art.

For me, golf club geek that I am, these putters have an identity of their own. Over the years certain putters have become legendary in the golf world and I can’t help but wonder that if circumstances were different would one of these creations had a chance to become legendary as well. Some examples of these famous putters are:

Arnold Palmer’s MacGregor IMG 5. For most of the glory years this was the putter. He was constantly tweaking, welding new metal and then grinding it off, but in some shape or form it was in the bag for most of his tournament wins. At one point the grinding and work he did on it was the inspiration for …

Ben Crenshaw’s Wilson 8802. This model of putter was a copy of one of Arnold’s grinding sessions and was the one used by Ben Crenshaw for his entire career. Ben’s almost mythical skill has made the 8802 and the Designed by Arnold Palmer version, prized collectors items. In addition to Crenshaw, players like Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Larry Mize and many others have won major tournaments using this style of putter.

Jack Nicklaus’ Wizard 600. Another product of a welding and grinding session, Jack’s Wizard 600 is uniquely his. The production model was built by the Hansberger Brothers of Chicago and unlike the others, no one really every used the Wizard in competition to any level of success. Jack’s putter was easily the most successful golf club in history until…

Tiger Woods’ Scotty Cameron Newport. An offshoot of a Karsten Solheim (Ping Golf) design, Tiger put this putter in the bag in the late 90’s and all of his wins from that time have been with this one putter. Tiger’s success with this putter has spawned an entire industry of collectable items related to putters and has influenced countless players to believe their putter has to be like Tiger’s. This putter is not only the winningest putter of all time, it is also the most influential.

Robots and Humans

By a show of hands, how many of you out there think you have a bad golf swing? Most of you, right? The funny thing is that if the truth were told the majority of the golf swings we see are pretty good, especially when there is no ball to strike. We often video practice swings to show players their potential and they are shocked to see that swing compared to the one with a ball. The problems with ball striking come from preparation, posture and ball position relative to that posture and not the esthetic quality of your swing.

To help you understand, try to envision the following. I have a robot that makes a technically perfect golf swing every time. All I have to do is switch on the machine. I have a customer that would like to see the machine in action. I would love to show him except I need about 30-45 minutes to set up the machine and get the ball in the appropriate position. It has to be positioned at the exact bottom of the arc of the swing, the club has to be positioned with the exact orientation to the machine and the machine must be pointed exactly in the right direction. On second thought you had better give me about 90 minutes to set up… for one shot! If want to see shots with different clubs I will need an hour each time I change. A round of golf with the robot would take about 2 days. If I have the ball out of position even the slightest amount the quality of the shot is just as poor as you would expect.

The difference in humans and robots is that humans can react to a bad ball position. In fact, good hand eye co-ordination will often mask poor preparation and cause a player to look to the wrong areas for improvement in their swing. Trying to alter path and direction by using your hands only is a favorite. You see this a great deal with players that have excessive curvature of the ball in flight. They react to a bad ball position by creating a adjusted path by swinging the hands independently of your alignment. The favorite is to aim left with the body and then try to swing the club more to the inside with the hands. At best a swing like this depends on extremely accurate timing. The keys to accurate ball striking are to have clubs that fit, have my body aligned properly to the path I would like the ball to travel, and a use swing that is proactive and not reactive. One that is in balance and working in the same direction as the body is pointed. Just like the robot.

Fall Analysis

One of the great mysteries to me concerning golf in the mid-west is why golf rounds played slow so dramatically after Labor Day. I understand the football argument, but even so fall is the best time of the year to play. The weather and golf course conditions are usually very good. The courses are less crowded, so pace of play is less of an issue. Most important, from my point of view, is that the later you play into the season the better the chance you have of playing better in the spring.

Fall is the best time to analyze your game. You have had the summer to develop some feel for your swing, good or bad. Now is the best time to go to your teaching professional and talk about the changes you can make to be a better player. Most mid-summer lessons are what I call conditional sessions. The student wants you to fix their game, BUT, don’t do too much. They just want one or two swing keys that can help you hit the ball in an acceptable manner. Most of the time they come a week before a special event like a member guest or charity outing. No time to really look at your game and truly evaluate your method.

Fall is the perfect time to take serious look at developing some new strategies for your game. Consider the following:

Grip – It is really tough to make a grip change. However, once you overcome the new feel it can make all the difference in the world.

Drivers – Now is the best time to have a professional look at your driver strategy. Get some help on proper set up and ball position demanded by new driver technology. Once those are understood then look to find the best driver for the new set up.

Putting – Now is the time to become a better putter. It is not a matter of luck, great putters are made not born. The first step is to make sure your putter fits you posture and vision. Depending on the individual some putters are easier to aim than others. Spend some time working to find a stroke you can repeat. Focus on these three factors in this order. Control the face. The majority of influence on the direction the ball leaves the putter is determined by face angle at impact. Control the speed. Rhythm and tempo are key factors in controlling the stroke for both distance and direction. Finally, when you can control the speed the putter swings then learn to associate the length of stroke to the length of the putt. Too many try to hit long putts hard and short putts softly with the same length backswing rather than using a consistent tempo and a longer stroke for a longer putt.

PGA Championsship

Tomorrow morning the 90th PGA Championship will begin play at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. This event is a little more special to me than all the others for a few reasons. First, as a PGA member it is our championship and the one, if by some miracle my game would hold up, would be my best chance at competing in a major championship. Second, I have had the honor of knowing a couple of past champions. At my first golf job I worked for 1954 PGA Champion, Chick Harbert. Chick told many stories about winning the event when it was a match play tournament. A friend and mentor of mine, Dow Finsterwald won the Championship in 1958, the first year the event was played at stroke play. Finally, it is special to me, because of a person who didn’t win it. I was an employee of Arnold Palmer from 1981-1996. Mr. Palmer was in his 50’s then and yet every year when the PGA rolled around the preparation for the event became quite intense. He had won just about every other golf tournament in the world but he could never seem to win a PGA Championship. He had a number of chances, the most famous in 1964 at the Columbus Country Club where he became the first player to break 70 in all four rounds of a major, only to finish 2nd to Bobby Nichols. Mr. Palmer finally broke his PGA jinx in by winning the first Senior event he ever entered, the 1980 Senior PGA Championship.

I used the word jinx because for almost any golfer there is a jinx or more appropriate, a mental block or barrier that keeps us from performing at a higher level. For Mr. Palmer I think it was the PGA Championship. For the rest of us it may be an event or a score. My personal barrier for a couple of years was a score of 70. One summer I shot 40 rounds of 70 without ever shooting a single round in the 60’s. It may just be a mental block with a certain club, like a driver or putter. Regardless, once you have convinced yourself you cannot do something it can be pretty hard to overcome. In golf the key to overcoming these barriers is to fight back and not give up. I solved my scoring barrier by playing from the shortest tees on our course until I got used to shooting a score in the 60’s. For our students that fight a certain golf club, we focus on that club. If you are intimidated by your driver, using your 3 wood instead is not the solution. Learning to use the driver is the solution. Some solid advice from your local PGA professional and a little practice will usually solve the problem.