Choosing the Correct Golf Ball.

One of the most productive services we offer at our Academy is to help our friends find the right golf ball for their game. For most, the first choices are the golf balls we receive as gifts or those we find on the golf course. It is hard to argue with this plan but the reality is that all golf balls are not created equal, and if you are looking to improve there is a better golf ball for you.

Step one in finding the right golf ball is to answer the following question, “Do I need more distance or do I need a golf ball that improves my performance around the green?” Think hard about this. It is easy to say we want more distance but what will help your score the most? When considering your short game. The important question is whether you use spin or loft and trajectory to control the golf ball.

Step Two. Spend some time getting an accurate appraisal of how fast you swing the golf club. The latest generations of golf balls are tweaked to perform best at certain speeds.

Step Three. How much are you willing to spend? Golf balls come in three basic prices, $20.00- $30.00 per dozen, $30.00 – $40.00 per dozen and more than $40.00. There are some that think like to buy recycled premium golf balls, but I can’t recommend it. You never know where they came from and if they have been sitting in a pond they are sure to be duds.

Step Four. Find a knowledgeable person to help. Let’s assume you have determined that you while you could always use more distance, your short game is better when you use a lower trajectory shot around the greens. This requires a ball that spins. Let us also assume your swing speed is around 85 mph with the driver. Not all high spin golf balls perform well at speeds of less than 100 mph, but every manufacturer makes a golf ball for this speed without sacrificing distance. Finally, your budget demands a ball in the moderate price category. When a salesperson is presented these facts they should be able to make a recommendation. Once they make the recommendation be sure to ask what it is about the construction of that particular ball that makes it best for my game. If they don’t know why, they might be recommending a ball they need to sell. An educated sales person will be able to tell you why.

Spring Golf - Are you ready?

There is an interesting phenomenon that occurs at the United States Golf Academy every year about this time. Regardless of weather conditions, the Monday after the time change, the phone starts to ring. With every call comes the same question, “When is the golf course going to open?” This latest round of extreme weather was no help but for us the answer is soon, very soon. Are you ready for the new season? The following are a couple of simple tips to help make the start of the season a little easier and hopefully more enjoyable.

Check the grips on your clubs. Over time rubber grips become slick, even when not in use. Wash them thoroughly with hot water, soap and a nylon brush. For grips a year old or so this is usually enough. If the grips are more than a couple of seasons old it may be time to replace them. A good solid grip is a basic fundamental and holding on to the club is obviously easier when the grips are fresh and a little tacky.

Start Simple. There are only two things that influence the flight of the ball, the position of the club face at impact and how fast the club it is moving. Experiment with your hand position on the club to find the grip that brings the club back to square at impact.

Start Slow. When coming off a layoff it is not the mechanics of your golf swing that have changed as much as the timing and tempo of your swing. Go out in the back yard and start swinging a golf club with your eyes closed. You will quickly find out how fast you can swing the club before you lose your balance. For the first couple of outings of the year try to maintain that speed and no faster. Focus on making solid contact with the ball at the slower speed. You might find you have been working way too hard and the early season swing tempo produces the same or greater distance with less effort.

Start Short. Find a place to hit some wedges and short irons before you grab the driver and start whaling away. Once you find a swing that works with the short clubs, the swing for the long clubs will easily come back to you.

Invest in a lesson. None of us have extra money to throw around these days, but a ½ hour lesson with the right pro can do your game a lot of good. Look for teachers who are full time instructors or teach some everyday. There is a rhythm in golf instruction just like anything else and teachers can get rusty just like students. Talk to the instructor prior to the lesson. Tell them you are just looking for a review of your fundamentals. Now is not the time to go to a “method” teacher and overhaul your game. Look for the pro that can enhance what you do, rather than change you to their preferences.

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.