Creating a Swing With Tour-Like Beauty
June 26, 2005
Golfers often wonder how and why professional’s swings look so effortless. They wonder why their own swings look and feel so different. Instead of the fluid, quiet power of Ernie Els or Fred Couples, most amateurs have a swing that amounts to a patchwork of moving parts, compensations, and tension. So what makes the tour players’ swings so different? Read more
The Inside Scoop
About Golf Swings and Causal Relationships
February 10, 2005
Golf, like life, has a lot to do with causal relationships. Say what? Causal relationships; like when you tell your boss that you are late to work because your alarm did not go off. Of course, the direct cause for being late was that you overslept. Oversleeping was caused by the alarm failing to go off (and because you stayed up too late watching the golf channel). The alarm did not work because you forgot to pay the electric bill, which caused the electric company to cut off power to your house. So, in a roundabout way, you were late for work because you forgot to pay the electric bill. Causal relationships. Read more
Talking Heads
Misconceptions About Keeping the Head Down
May 22, 2005
When it comes to the golf swing, one of the most talked about body parts is the head. The piece of advice that you hear repeatedly is, “Keep your head down.” This is golf’s equivalent of an apple a day to keep the doctor away. Unfortunately, a lot of the time this remedy is like taking cough syrup to treat a hangnail– it is nasty to take, and does not help the problem. Read more
Summer in the Shenandoah Valley
When the Middle Days Arrive
June 11, 2006
The Valley has been changing, and the daylight stretching out, as the solstice draws near. There is a fullness along the country roads where trees recently bare take on a middle-aged kind of thickness, swaying contentedly with the last of spring breezes. The cacophony of cicadas, tree frogs, crickets, and a million other mate-seeking critters makes such a steady droning that you actually have to think about it to hear their song. In the fields that twist to fit the Shenandoah River sit tawny bales of fresh-hewn hay which, from a distance, speckle the countryside like Civil War infantry frozen in time. Read more
Fix the Finish
Sometimes Function will Follow the Form
April 6, 2005
When working with a golfer to improve his swing, one of my favorite methods is to fix the finish. What that means is that we make the finish of the swing, the follow-through, look good. The golfer strikes a pose at the end of the swing, imagining, like I tell my junior golfers, that someone is taking a picture for Sports Illustrated. Read more
Patience is a Virtue in Every Language
Golf Lessons from Different Cultures
May 1, 2005
I have had the good fortune as a teaching professional to work with people from a variety of cultures. It is one of the best parts of my job, getting to meet so many interesting people from so many interesting places. And the one word I usually try to learn in different languages is patience. Read more
Relaxation Makes it a Swing
Develop Feel, Power, and Accuracy by Relaxing
May 7, 2006
It seems to be the instinct of most of us non-tour players to grip a club like we have gotten a hold of the neck of an IRS agent. It is like we are arm wrestling with the club—fingers, wrists, and forearms straining with our effort to hit that little ball higher, and straighter, and farther. But the tension in our swings is a big part of the reason we do not hit the ball more like tour players. Read more
About Junior Golf
Getting Kids Started in the Game
January 5, 2005
People frequently ask me about the best age to get their children started at playing golf. The easy answer is that it is not really a question of age, but of interest and attention span, which is obviously different from one child to the next. I have given lessons to children as young as three years old, but in general, it seems that young golfers respond better from age six and up. Read more
About the Yips
The Nature of a Nasty Stroke
July 16, 2006
Probably the most dreaded shot in golf is the shank. And the shank, which is when we hit the ball with the neck of the club rather than the clubface, unfortunately travels in herds. I will see a golfer at the driving range hit one or two of the ugly things, the ball squirting off at right angles to the target or rolling disgracefully twenty yards out, and next thing you know that is the only shot he can hit. But the strange thing is that the person in the next stall will start firing off those disgusting hosel-rockets too. Soon enough, half of the people at the range will inexplicably start peeling off shots in every direction and they will look around to see if anyone was watching, or they will glance accusingly at their clubhead as if their equipment suddenly malfunctioned. Read more
Fit to a Tee
Making the Most of the Winter Months
February 12, 2006
It is a slap in the face, the way CBS broadcasts these images into our homes. Less than twenty four hours after a foot of snow fell here in the east, we are taunted by the footage from the Monterey Peninsula where the tour players and a bunch of lucky amateurs are playing at Pebble Beach. Sunshine, sailboats, short-sleeve shirts, all kinds of exotic wildlife, that magnificent coastline where the Pacific pounds away—and here we are laid out in our egg chairs and lazy-boys after shoveling the driveway, two portable heaters breathing hot air towards a set of toes still unthawed. Read more
Buying a Game
A Look at Golfer’s Priorities
October 13, 2006
In a world where golf club manufacturers daydream about things like coefficient of restitution and moment of inertia to make clubs that hit the ball farther and straighter; in a world where golf balls are engineered with two-piece construction and made of mysterious stuff like surlyn so that they fly unimaginable distances; in a world where people spend the equivalent of a college tuition to be properly outfitted for a round of golf; in a world where all this is true and yet the average male golfer shoots almost 100 and the average female shoots over 110—somebody needs to take a look at golfers’ priorities. Read more
About Trajectory
An Angle for Every Occasion
October 28, 2005
Golf is a game of angles; lots of angles. There are shaft angles, spine angles, clubface angles, angles of approach, and many others, including launch angle, which basically determines the trajectory of a golf shot. “Trajectory” is a commonly used word in the world of golf, but it is also commonly misunderstood. Even when golfers know the meaning of the word, many fail to control the trajectory of their ball flight in a way that lets them get the most out of their shots. Read more
Learning the Game
Learning Alone Might Not Be the Way to Go
December 1, 2004
The young man, about sixteen years old, was a cart boy and snack bar attendant at a municipal golf course in Maryland. He had a mess of sandy blond hair, and an earnest look about him. He begged the club pro to come down to the driving range and help him with his swing. The young guy was a beginner. Read more
Playing the Odds
Good Math on the Course Means Less Adding Later
October 20, 2004
Here is a common scenario on the golf course: Mr. Thinblader, a 30-handicapper, stands on the first tee with his Supercharged, 2000cc, Titanium Tomahawk driver, and takes an epic swing—which results in a ball mark two feet in front of the tee before the ball sheepishly grazes its way100 yards down the fairway. Now he has got about 240 yards left to the green, so he naturally picks out his matching 3-wood. He manages a pretty solid lick, which keeps the ball in play, about 35 yards short of the green. Then he blades the pitch across the green, chips back to the green, and two-putts for a double bogey. Read more
Kiss Three-Putts Goodbye
How to Learn Distance Control in Putting
October 27, 2004
“There is no point in taking a putting lesson,” I have heard people say. “It is an individual thing,” they say. While I agree that there are many different styles of putting that get results, there are also some underlying principles that help most people get better on the greens. And putting is such a crucial part of scoring in golf that it is better not left to random experimentation. Read more
Patience is a Virtue
Game Improvement is a Long-Term Investment
October 5, 2004
In a world of fast food, DSL, and guaranteed overnight deliveries, improving the golf game can seem like a long and difficult process; especially when a golfer wants to turn his chunky pull-slice into a power draw with a one-hour lesson. Read more
The Long Ball
Distance Versus Course Management
September 29, 2004
I remember a story about Tommy Armour, the great player and golf teacher. Several members at his club turned their lounge talk into a significant wager on one of the prominent businessmen in the group-the question was whether this guy could break 90. One concession was made along with the bet: the businessman could take along Armour as his caddie and coach during the round. Read more
Tale of the Tape
One Student’s Way to Better Golf
September 22, 2004
Robert Nanton made his appearance today. Mr. Nanton has been coming down from Fort Washington, Maryland to vacation at Massanutten Resort for years, and for years he has showed up at Lakeview for his annual golf lesson. He is one of the interesting people who make my job as a teaching professional so enjoyable. Read more
Going Au Natural
Thoughts on Natural Golf and Bad Backs
September 8, 2004
I received an email recently that brings up a couple of interesting issues having to do with learning and playing golf. Stephen, from Waynesboro, Virginia wrote:
I would like you to share your opinion of “Natural Golf”. It is touted for people who have back injuries that cause them difficulty in playing golf. Could you write a column regarding your professional opinion on natural golf, or any approach to golf that lessens the torque the body is put through?
I cannot claim to be an authority on the Natural Golf system, but I have studied the techniques, and I have taught a few golfers who were trying to use this method. I will start with a little background. Read more
With Confidence Comes Success
How the teacher learned a lesson
August 25, 2004
It is always a bittersweet experience when one of my junior golfers achieves a level of golf that he can beat me on the course. The competitor in me does not enjoy it much, but the instructor gets to take a little pride in the success of the young player. In the case of one of my juniors, not only has he become too tough to handle on the course, but he helped to shape the way I approach teaching the game. Read more
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