MISCELLANEOUS
(80).."ROUGH RECOVERY"
WHAT ....
Reduce the contact between your clubhead and long, heavy, or wet grass to a minimum.
WHY ....
The longer or more lush or wet the rough, the more it will twist your clubface out of alignment prior to impact usually into a closed position - by wrapping around the hosel and/or shaft of the club.
HOW ....
Your overriding goal in playing from rough is to steepen the angle at which your clubhead rises from and returns to the ball, principally by swinging on a more upright plane and/or using more wrist action. Within those parameters, experiment and gain experience as follows:
When distance is paramount:
Because it rounded head facilitates penetration of long grass with less twisting, prefer a well-lofted fairway-wood to a long-iron for maximum distance when accuracy is not critical. When you need distance-with-accuracy, compromise with a medium-iron.
Stand a little more erect and closer to the ball.
Position the ball no farther forward than the center of your stance.
Close the clubface slightly at address.
Steepen your angle of attack by reducing your backswing body privoting, while still hinging your wrists and swinging your arms freely.
Smash the clubhead straight down into the ball, gripping firmly with your leading hand and hitting hard with your trailing hand.
Allow for the "punched" ball to emerge fast and low and run far.
When height is paramount:
Because grass intervening between clubface and ball reduces backspin, which increases distance (the "flier" effect), prefer clubface loft over shaft length.
Position the ball no farther back than the instep of your leading foot.
Aim the clubface to the right and your body (feet, knees, hips, shoulders) to the left of the target - the more in each case the higher you want the ball to fly.
Steepen your angle of attack by reducing your backswing body pivoting, while still hinging your wrists and swinging your arms freely.
Deliver the clubhead aggressively with your hands and wrists as soon as your feet and legs have initiated the down-and-through-swing, keeping your head and upper body well behind the ball through impact.
Allow for the ball to fade from left to right.
Grass against shot:
To counter the increased tendency of the grass to slow the clubhead and twist it closed, take more club than you would normally use, grip firmer, release very aggressively with your hands and wrists, and aim right to offset an almost certain draw or hook.
Grass with shot:
To counter the increased "flier" effect, use less club than you would normally require, set-up and swing as for maximum height, and allow for extra run.
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(82).."LOSE 5 STROKES"
"The average golfer does not improve stroke by stroke. Improvement comes in plateaus." ...Harvey Penick
Believe it or not, the higher your score, the faster you can lower it. But only if you use the magic words...."Short Game".
There's really no mystery to it. Anybody who plays much golf knows that about half of their shots (strokes) are struck from within 60 yards of the flag stick. And yet, most average golfers spend all their time practicing with the driver...go figure?
A player who shoots 95 does not see his or her score drop by a stroke or two stokes to 90 through lessons and practice. In golf, game improvement usually comes in plateaus. The high-handicappers' 95 suddenly drops to 90; the 87 shooter abruptly scores an 81. But, once you reach a score in th mid-seventies, improvement comes more slowly, and it typically comes only through the short game.
There can be many reasons why the 95 becomes a 90, but Harvey believed that if you want to see a radical improvement in your game within a week or two, you must make a radical change in the way you practice. For two weeks, devote 90 percent of your practice time to chipping and putting, and only 10 percent to the full swing.
That's right---if you want to knock off five strokes, put down the driver, leave your long clubs in the bag and head for the practice green.
"If you do this," Penick wrote in his Little Red Book," your 95 will turn into 90. I guarantee it."
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(83).."CLIP THE TEE"
"Rhythm and tempo are words I avoid. They are not the same as timing." ...Harvey Penick
How many times have you hit a perfect shot on the golf course or practice range and wondered "What did I do differently in that swing than from all my other swings?" Very often, the answer is that there was nothing different in the swing, but something was very different in the timing of the swing.
Timing is very different than rhythm and tempo. As Harvey Penick said, "Timing is getting your muscles together to produce the maximum speed of the clubhead at impact and the angle of the clubface square on the line to the target."
Many things can affect your timing (lack of practice, tension, fatigue, poor swing mechanics), but there is a good way to develop it. One of Harvey's favorite drills was to clip the tee. This sounds far to simple to work, but think about it. If you can consistently clip a very low tee (no ball, just the tee) out of the ground with a 6- or 7- iron, you have accomplished a great deal. The clubface is square; the swing path is straight (an outside-to-inside swing path could result in deep divots, an inside-to-outside path could make it hard to hit the tee at all); and there is enough speed to knock the tee out of the ground.
In addition, there is no ball to clutter your mind with results and expectations of ball flight. This frees your mind so you can focus on your setup. Take this drill seriously and clip more tees than you hit balls and your timing will improve.
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(84).."CHIP OR PITCH"
"If your opponent keeps getting down in two from off the green and beats you, don't think it's luck." ... Harvey Penick
When is it appropriate to chip or pitch the ball from around the green? Before you can decide, it is important to understand the difference between the two shots.
A chip causes the ball to travel further on the ground than in the air, while a pitch sends the ball further in the air than on the ground. Harvey Penick believed the most common mistake among average golfers was chipping with too much loft, thus making it difficult to control the distance that the golf ball travels. He advised using the least-lofted club that will get the ball on the green and rolling as soon as possible - even a 3-iron if that is what it takes.
It is best to chip the ball if:
the lie is poor or
green is hard or fast
>the lie is downhill
the wind will influence the shot
if you are under pressure
Make no mistake, chipping is not putting and requires its own grip and stroke. To chip, use your regular grip, but place your hands toward the bottom of the handle. Play the ball in the center of your stance, and move your weight a little more to your left foot. Make your back swing and follow-through approximately the same length. And, be sure to keep your hands ahead of or even with the club head on the follow-through.
Consequently, it is best to pitch if:
if the lie is good
the lie is uphill
the green is soft or slow
an obstacle is between you and the hole
the wind is not an influence on the shot
you are confident in your ability to shoot for the flag stick.
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(85).."TAKING A STAND"
"Unless you have a reasonably good grip and stance, anything you read about the golf swing is useless" ...Harvey Penick
With all the possible faults a golfer could have, Harvey Penick believed that aiming to the right was one of the three most common faults among golfers. Not only do mid- and high-handicappers aim right of their target, but so do many lower handicap players as well.
Although usually thought to be due to an inside-to-outside swing path, an open club face or weak grip, most often the root cause is the player's alignment. To properly line up a shot, Harvey suggests you stand a few paces behind the ball and imagine a line drawn from you, through the ball and ending at your target. Then approach your ball and place your clubhead behind the ball so that it rests naturally on the ground. Prior to taking your stance, pick out a distinct target and focus only on that target as your take your stance.
The clubface should be perpendicular to the target line, and should not be closed nor open. Place yourself in the address position with your feet aligned so that the tips of your toes form an imaginary line which runs parallel to your target line and continues to a point just left of the target.
One method to double check your alignment, is to take your stance and hold a club's shaft along the front of your thighs. Look where the club is pointing, and you will see where you are aimed. Remember, the club should point slightly left of the target. Some golf instructors encourage you to place a club on the ground at your feet, but Harvey believed that technique actually revealed very little about your alignment.
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(86).."TO THE FINISH"
If you swing to a nice smooth follow-through, what happens to the ball in the hitting ares will be a success." ... Harvey Penick
To feel the confidence of a repeating swing, players must first focus on the finish. Most players try to perfect the back swing first, acting as though the job is done once their back swing is set in a correct position.
Instead, their work has just begun. A proper finish is the bookend to a good back swing, and a great way to achieve a proper finish is to start at the address position and slowly take your club to the finished position with no back swing. Pose in a perfect follow-through, a high finish with elbows out in front of the body, facing the target with the left foot carrying all the weight, head up and eyes looking down range to follow a good shot. Hold the pose. Feel it. Once you sense what a good finish position feels like, make a slow, short swing such as a chip or pitch that concludes in that exact position and pay no attention to your back swing for now. Just make a swing that finishes in this balanced follow-through position. Hold the pose. Feel it.
Do this drill several times, eventually working up to a full swing, and in time your full swing will feel more repetitive. After all, what counts is the way the club goes through the ball. The back swing will come easily enough once you learn the route and destination of the fore swing.
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(87).."DISPELLING THE MYTHS"
"Keeping the left arm straight at the top is not a requirement for a good swing." ...Harvey Penick
A student once asked Harvey Penick what was the worst thing a golfer could do during his swing. Mr. Penick thought for a moment and then responded, "Well, it's not one thing, it's two: keeping your head still and your left arm straight."
Keeping your head still and left arm straight are common myths which have permeated the minds of golfers, and it's often a shock for people to learn that these "fundamentals" can actually restrict a golf swing.
First, to keep your head still during the golf swing is practically impossible. Mr. Penick used to challenge, "Show me a champion who doesn't move his head during his golf swing. Sam Snead comes as close as anyone ever has, but he moves it too." Those who try usually end up having their head move forward, down or both during their backswing, and this almost always results in a weak, off-line shot. In any athletic motion, the head moves. If the golfer performs a proper shoulder turn, their head remains steady and moves with the body behind the ball. The eyes see the ball, but the head moves.
Secondly, trying to keep the left arm rigidly straight is very restrictive to the average golfer's swing. The backswing becomes short and tight and the downswing lacks authority. The left arm can bend at the top of the swing, but must be straight at impact. This is a natural result of a good setup and turn.
The key here is not to consciously try to keep your head still or your left arm straight during the swing. Allow your head to move some with your turn and your arms to be soft and tension-free.
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(88).."TAKE DEAD AIM"
"Once you address the golf ball, hitting it has to be the most important thing in you life at that moment" ....Harvey Penick
Harvey Penick once said that the most important piece of advice he could give a student was to "take dead aim." What he meant in those three simple words was that in the last few seconds before you hit the ball, block everything out of your mind and focus your attention on the target.
"Once you address the golf ball," said Penick, "hitting it has got to be the most important thing in your life at that moment. Shut out all thoughts other than picking out a target and taking dead aim at it."
This can be a powerful tool. Clearing the mind of all thoughts except the thought of the target frees the muscles to do their job. At this point your imagination is stronger than your will power, and your body will do what your mind tells it to do. You have no doubt, no fear. For those few seconds you are what you think, and your ball may well fly to the target despite any setup and swing flaws.
Spend some practice time taking dead aim. Change targets and clubs often, and find what thoughts work best to ease your tension and focus your mind. Resist the urge to worry about your swing when you hit a stray shot, and you will soon become as mentally fine-tuned as your swing is sharp. Take dead aim with every swing, and trust yourself.
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(89).."ROCK SOLID PUTTING"
"Sinking putts makes your confidence soar, and it devastates your opponent." ...Harvey Penick
Harvey Penick believed that nothing is more important psychologically than knocking putts into the hole. "A good putter is a match for anyone and a bad putter is a match for no one," he said.
The first fundamental of good putting is to keep your hands even with or ahead of the putter on the follow-through. Read your line from behind the ball and take your stance with your hands slightly ahead of the ball or straight up. Set up with your eyes directly over the ball. Glance at the hole and at your putter blade to make sure it is square to your line. Take two or three practice strokes, then put your putter blade down, keep your head and eyes still and imitate your last practice stroke.
With short putts, concentrate on the line. With long putts, concentrate on the distance. "The more time you spend on the putting green," he said, "the better golf scores you will turn in." Remember...over 40% of the strokes you accrue in a round of golf occur on the dance floor...40%
Also, Mr. Penick advised to always make it a habit to carry your putter in your left hand or in both hands, but never carry it in your right hand alone. Your left hand and arm is an extension of the shaft, so placing your putter behind the ball with your left hand will keep your aim.
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(90).."HIT IT HARD"
"If you start off the game hitting the ball easy, your muscles learn the slow pace. You will always lack distance." ...Harvey Penick
Many beginning golfers learn wonderful set-up positions during their
introduction to the game. Grip, ball position, posture and alignment are all vital factors which must be performed correctly for the golf swing to be effortless. But once you have obtained good set-up positions, you need to swing easy and hit it hard. In many instances, students of golf are so concerned with making a pretty swing, that they end up grooving a lovely looking swing with poor efficiency.
Golfers who do not have an abundant amount of clubhead speed - such as many women golfers and some senior golfers - can increase their clubhead speed with a proven exercise that helps develop their golfing muscles.
Take an old wood club and increase its total weight to 22 ounces with lead tape. (Some heavily weighted training aids are shorter than actual clubs and don't provide the same feel during the swing.) Take the weighted club and swing it ten times every day for three weeks. After three weeks, increase your swings to 25 each day. On days in which you play golf, swing it after you play, but never swing the weighted club before you play. Although you may be tempted to do so in "loosening up", swinging the weighted club prior to playing will actually make your real clubs feel too light.
Remember, to keep a steady head while you swing and always aim at a certain spot just as though you were completing a normal swing.
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(91).."GOLF BALLS"
The following is from a GOLF DIGEST article on the
pros and cons of the reprocessed golf ball. Or, more precisely, the reprocessed water ball.
Here, my friends, is the $64,000 question.
Exactly how much life is left in those golf balls that have been fished
out of the water? The cover of a golf ball seems fairly impervious,
so how bad could it be for a ball to sit idly in the water for a few months?
Does a ball that's been lying lying in the mud at the bottom of a pond for
30 days lose distance? Does it gain distance? Does being submerged for a
length of time have any effect whatsoever?
Like most golfers, GOLF DIGEST editors recover their fair
share of water balls (that's right, we're as cheap as the next guy), and
also like most golfers, we wanted to know what we were getting from these
somewhat soggy transactions. We're not the only ones interested in recycled
balls, either.
Here's how we went about investigating the playability
of balls pulled from the water, and keep in mind
that the test was not all-inclusive. We used only three-piece, balata-covered
balls and two-piece balls with a lithium-Surlyn cover.
Step 1: We took 11 new three-piece
balls and 11 new two-piece balls and submerged them in a pond for eight
days. We took another 22 new two- and three-piece balls and submerged them
for three months. Then we took a third batch of 22 new balls and let them
sit in the water for six months. The average water temperatures ranged from
36 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit during this period.
Step 2: We recovered the balls
last November and tested them using a robotic hitting machine. The golf
club used was a standard-length metal driver (9.5-degree loft) with an extra-stiff
shaft. Club head speed was 93.7 m.p.h., launch angle was 9 degrees and the
average spin rate was 2,800 r.p.m. On the day of the testing, the wind was
calm and the fairway was a bit damp.
Step 3: We started testing
by hitting 11 new two- and three-piece balls as a benchmark (same brands
and models as the water balls). The average carry and roll for the new three-piece
balls was 250.7 yards. These numbers are not the maximum carry and roll
for two- and three-piece balls, simply the average carry and roll under
our test conditions.
The next stage was to hit the balls that had been retrieved from the water. The average carry and
roll for three-piece balls that had been in the water for eight days
was 235.7 yards. That distance shrunk to 229.4 yards after three months
and to 226.2 yards after six months.
The
differences? A six yard loss of distance after eight days, a 12-yard loss
after three months and a 15-yard loss after six months.
For the two-piece ball, the
carry and roll after eight days in the water was 244.9 yards compared with
250.7 yards for the new two-piece balls. The average carry and roll for
two-piece balls after three months in the drink was 241.6 yards. The two-piece
balls that spent six months under water averaged 242.5 yards.
The bottom line is that the two-piece ball came
up almost six yards shorter after being submerged for eight days. It lost
another 3.3 yards (9.1 total) after three months, yet interestingly enough,
after six months in the water, the two-piece ball averaged one yard farther
than the ball that had been in the water for three months.
Golf balls basically have a non-porous cover,says Mike Sullivan, senior director of research and development
worldwide for Spalding, maker of Top-Flite golf balls,but like with
any plastic or polymer, they are subject to chemicals passing through them.
We have looked at this in great detail, because we certainly don't want
the balls to be affected one way or the other by humidity or wet fairways.
For a two-piece ball, being in the water typically
makes the ball harder in terms of compression, and it also slows down the
coefficient of restitution (the ability of the ball to regain its roundness
after impact), and that makes it fly shorter. Three-piece balls are the
opposite in that they get softer in terms of compression, but they will
also fly shorter. We have no data that says water hurts three-piece balls
more than two-piece balls, but soft-cover balls are obviously a bit more
permeable than hard-cover balls."
Another opinion comes from Ron Vanasdale, a senior executive
vice president for the golf ball division of Sport Supply Group, a publicly
held company that claims to operate the largest golf ball recycling business
in the nation. I can honestly say that we have done tests in the tens
of thousands utilizing our environments, and I'll tell you this much, your
numbers are off. It's all relative to the types of balls, the makes of balls,
when the balls were made and the types of composition of the cover stock,
says Vanasdale.
We also asked Howard Stone, a professor of chemical engineering
and applied mechanics at Harvard University, for his opinion on what effect
water could have on golf balls. Given how long they were in the water, there are two things that might have happened," says Stone. You might
have absorbed a little bit of water into the ball so the ball might not
only be a bit heavier, but it might have a slightly larger radius, and both
of those factors, in general, will tend to affect the aerodynamic performance,
making the ball fall faster. Water may also affect the structure of the
molecules in the ball and might cause it to swell a little, a common
effect in polymers (the scientific name for various materials used to make
golf balls, such as Surlyn, balata, elastomer, etc.).
The missing link in this equation is that when you scoop
a ball from the water, you never know how long that ball has been sitting
there. So, the next time you see a little white orb shimmering in the shallows
of a nearby pond, remember the adage, all that glitters is not gold.
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