Branson Golf Guide

While running from one spot to the other, dodging construction crews and listening to the incessant ringing of my cell phone the week prior to opening the golf course, it dawned on me the hectic pace of everything around me and it only made perfect tense to revisit a subject we briefly discussed in a previous article… Tempo.

Regardless of how mechanically and fundamentally sound a golf swing is it will not generate positive results if the overall tempo is too fast. Although there is no definite amount of time it should take to swing a golf club, there is a proper rhythm of how it should take place.

Everyone in today’s society seems to be living in the “fast lane.” From the way we drive, order food, text message etc… Remember golf is supposed to be a relaxing game built to take in the beauty of nature and your surroundings, while playing a game where strong, weak, short and tall can equally compete against the golf course.

Determining that your tempo is off on the golf course is a pretty easy flaw to diagnose. If you are playing alone and seem to be hitting a lot of shots thin, and not getting the proper ball flight then the first cause I would look at is your tempo and try to slow down. Should you be playing in your usual group, don’t be afraid to listen to your golfing buddies. Although none of them may be tour pros, they do see your swing more often than anyone else and can pretty easily see if you are swinging faster than usual.

However, I always believe it best to avoid a problem rather than try to correct one. The tempo of your golf swing is no more than an extension of your overall mood and actions. If you are rushing to get to the golf course or hurrying to finish a round to get home for dinner it will be exposed in your golf swing.

Some exercises for you to work on to improve your golf swing tempo can be as simple as making you leave in enough time to get to the golf course before your tee time to leisurely prepare for your round, rather than tying your shoes on the way to the first tee like a couple of the guys I play golf with. Another would be if you play golf with someone who has a particularly fast swing, just don’t watch them swing or it will influence your tempo. Conversely if there is someone in your group that has a very nice fluid swing don’t be afraid to closely watch their actions leading up to hitting a shot and try to emulate some of their tendencies while preparing for your next shot.

Tempo is the piece of the puzzle that ties it all together in making a solid mechanically correct golf swing. Try to spend some time slowing down both your golf swing and your life in general. We only come this way one time, enjoy it!

I am headed back to the “rat race” of opening a new facility, but I believe I will take my own advice and slowly walk back into the maelstrom.

Fairways and Greens.

September already… it seems like it was only a couple of weeks ago when we first started discussing spring and getting ready for a new golf season.

Now the air is finally cooling off and the kids are back in school and the “sand between your toes” from summer vacation has been replaced by that nasty “fried egg” lie in the greenside bunker on number 11 that you have to get up and down to tie the skins game.

We have in the past covered how to play a bunker shot, but we assumed that we would be given the simplest of lies, lying in the flat part of the bunker with no limitations placed on our results by the condition of the lie.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Bunkers have edges and lips, and sometimes very soft sand. This is the most difficult type of bunker to hit out of. When a golf ball lands in the bunker with a very steep trajectory, as is the case when we are hitting short irons into the green, they have a much greater chance of plugging in the sand creating a much more difficult recovery from the sand.

When faced with a plugged lie in the bunker, many of the fundamentals of a bunker shot must change to produce a shot that will allow you to get the ball onto the green.

The first of these is the way we address the ball. Earlier we opened the clubface slightly to allow the club to slide under the ball and “pop” out of the sand allowing it to land softly and roll a very short distance. With a plugged lie we cannot take the same approach. If you opened the clubface you would be exposing more of the flange of the club to the sand and it would skip off the sand producing a shot that would be bladed and not escape the bunker.

To make sure we can “dig” down in the sand and get the ball out we have to close the clubface which will remove the bounce from the club and allow it to descend deeper into the sand and force the ball out of the sand.

This type of address will make the ball come out lower than other shots and also to the left of your target line. To adjust for these effects, we must first align our body to the right of where your intended target, you will essentially pull the ball back on line.

More importantly, you must allow for the additional roll the ball will have since you will not be able to put any spin on the shot. With the ball sitting deeply in the sand your swing will produce a shot that moves more sand than others and keep you from making clean contact with the ball and thus eliminating spin.

There are many bunker shots that are considered not very difficult and an “up and down” is a simple task, there are others that you may even think you can hole out.

This one becomes a sort of survival test. You can save par from one of these lies, but it will take patience and probably a ten foot putt to do so.

There are times on the golf course when we just have to take what was given to us and do the best we can. A plugged lie in the bunker is just that. Practice the technique we discussed and try to save your pars, but be sure you at least get the ball out of the bunker. The only thing worse than a plugged lie in the bunker is having two of them.

Fairways and Greens!

Today we begin the backswing… The shape of the full backswing is half of an elongated U. The most critical part of the backswing to create this shape is the first eighteen inches of takeaway, here your club head must go straight back along the target line practically skimming the ground.

Accomplishing this first step of a proper backswing will have the shaft of the club, your left hand and arm remaining in an unbroken unit. Your club is now on the right track and the only body parts that have moved are your hands, arms and shoulders. The lack of lower body movement may seem rigid or uncomfortable but is critical for the coiling of the hips to develop a powerful downswing.

As the club gets farther back from the ball, you must lift and extend it upward. When the hands get to waist-high, the right hand cocks the wrist in such a way that the right palm is facing straight ahead at a 90-degree angle to the target line. This is where we first take note to keep the right elbow pointing straight to the ground.

In order to achieve complete extension of the club in the backswing, you must set the rest of the body in motion. Your right hip and shoulder turn as if on a swivel. You must keep some “give” in the lower body to develop a free flowing motion. This “give” comes from allowing the left knee to flex to the right until it gets about even with the golf ball.

This brings us to one of the major flaws that strike the average golfer on their backswing… the left heel. The tendency for most players here is to allow the left heel to come up off the ground at this point to “increase” the length of the backswing, and thus they believe, their shot distance. Although this may in some cases be true, what it ultimately does is change the center of our golf swing if the left heel does not return to the exact spot from where it came. This move can be accomplished or even perfected through much practice… take Jack Nicklaus for instance, he played pretty well didn’t he? However I expect that no one reading this article will be putting in the kind of hours, days and years of practice it takes to accomplish this, so “our rule” will be keep the left heel on the ground on the backswing.

These movements should all be slow and deliberate; we should never rush to get the club to the top of our backswing. After all we are not hitting the ball with our backswing, we are getting our body in the position it must be in in order to hit a golf shot. A well timed and properly formed backswing can easily be compared to the pulling back of the hammer of a gun… it won’t fire until you do so.

Next week the downswing and impact…

Fairways and Greens!

Grip, Stance and Posture… We are moving towards the sound elements of a golf swing. Today we put them together to actually get into our address position and aligned towards our target.

How we approach the ball is one of the most important elements in our game. The process of getting into the address position creates both a psychological and physical mood vital to the success of each shot. Far too many golfers approach the ball from a 90 degree angle, or directly from the side. This practice makes us twist our head and look over our left shoulder to see the target line and address the club to it. This disorients them and results in the endless “jiggle and twist” you observe as they try to get comfortable.

Another problem created by this type of approach it the tendency it produces to stand too far from the ball and “reach” for the ball. As you remember “reaching” promotes the three main faults at address: weight on toes, knees locked and shoulders slumped.

The only completely reliable way to get into address position is to start from behind the ball. This gives you the proper perspective on where you want to go. Your eyes, the ball and the target are all on the same line. Approach the ball from the side on a shallow arc to the target line.

The first “solid” position in the address is taken with the right foot, which should be placed square to target line slightly behind the ball. Next, put the club head behind the ball with the clubface square to the target. Finally step into the ball with the left foot, keeping in mind your ball position. You are now in the prime address position.

There are many poor shots that are hit during every round of golf that are due in large part to a poor address position. It is impossible to hit a good shot from a poor position!

Our natural tendency is to swing the club to where you are looking, not to where you are aligned. I see many players who line up well to the right of the target, while keeping their eyes on the target. They then “swing the club from the top” causing them to cross over their target line and pull the ball well left or their target. They then automatically line up further right on their next shot, believing they are correcting the problem, while actually only compounding it.

Remember these few simple tips before you prepare to hit your next shot and after some “retraining” of your eye you will see great improvement in your ball striking.

Next week we begin the full swing…

Fairways and Greens!

Since everyone spent last week perfecting their grip, today we will move into our address position….

Address to most people consists mainly of being square to their target line; this is of course a major factor, but not the only element of a sound address position. The other elements are foot spread, knee flex, posture, and the one that affects all other elements more than most people realize – the distance you stand from the ball.

Since I believe this is the most important factor in developing a good address position, and thus hitting good golf shots we will begin here. Standing too far from the ball causes a number of things detrimental to good shot making. First, your weight moves out towards the toes, which creates poor balance. Second, you’ll tend to stiffen your knees, which destroys good leg action. Finally your posture will be poor. You will almost always slump forward with the shoulders, rather than flexing at the knees.

The most recognizable signs of standing too far from the ball prior to swinging are; if both arms are rigid or if the butt end of the club is more than six or seven inches from your body. You are also too far from the ball if you cannot wiggle your toes at address, meaning you have too much weight on your toes. The fascinating and confounding thing about all of this is that most of the poor positions I just described “feel good.”

Most players have the tendency to spread the feet too wide, once again because of the false sense of strength and stability. I believe it best for most players to go with the tried and true measurement of the heels no further apart than the width of the shoulders. Should you depart from this I would only recommend going narrower, as being too wide severely restricts the proper use of the legs during the swing.

Assuming the correct foot spread, the ball should be played slightly ahead of center (to the left for a right handed golfer.) If you play the ball too far to the right, you will strike the ball with a descending blow, causing teed shots to be “skied” and balls played from the fairway to be hit “fat”. Too far left can be even worse. If you play the ball off the left instep or beyond, which is common among most golfers as they believe this will help the ball into the air, and you will hit too much on the upswing producing a very low flight and lack of force.

The knees should be flexed just enough to keep them from straightening during the swing. With a straight back you then bend at the waist until your club comes into contact with the ground, making sure that you remember how far you are away from the golf ball.

There you have it… the proper elements of a sound address position. Next week we will work on getting into this position on the golf course making sure to emphasize our target line and the proper alignment of our body to allow us to produce solid well struck golf shots from our new address position.

Fairways and Greens!

As promised last week, today we begin on our mythical journey towards developing a reliable and effective golf swing. Over the coming weeks we will touch on subjects from club selection to hitting a draw and a fade, but today we begin with the most elemental portion of everyone’s golf swing regardless of their skill or ability… “the grip.”

From the outset everyone who attempts to learn this game should put every effort into acquiring a sound grip that can be used for the rest of their golfing life. Developing a poor grip early in golf will severely limit your playing potential. With a good grip, you have a solid foundation on which to build the rest of your game, and be able to play good-quality golf all your life.

What is the basis of a good grip? I subscribe to the time honored rule of having the “V’s” formed when you close the thumb and forefinger of each hand point toward the right shoulder. Accomplishing this configuration provides the right amount of flexibility in the hands, plus the necessary control over clubface alignment at impact.

To create this union of hands and club, you should hold the club with the fingers of the left hand. Specifically the club runs from the juncture of the palm and the last two fingers, across the lowest section of the middle finger and the middle section of the index finger. The left thumb should ride just to the right of the center of the grip. The ideal position of the right hand has the palm facing the target. This will have the club lie in the fingers for the right hand. The right thumb will lie diagonally across the grip with only the inside in contact with the club.

To make our hands work in unison they must be joined together. This is where we get the interlocking grip or the overlapping grip. You connect your hands with the little finger of the right hand and the crevice formed by the index and middle finger of the left hand. There is no proven “better” choice between the two, a players hand size and strength will play a factor into which one will work best, but you should select the one that feels most comfortable to you.

Even the best hand placement can be ineffective if hand pressure on the grip is too great. An overly tight hold on the club is far more common that an overly loose one, and is due for the most part to anxiety. When we worry about the consequences of our shots we tend to tense our muscles. That tension almost invariably centers on our hands and thus our grip. Relax your hands on the club and your results will greatly improve.

No great swing actions were discussed in this week’s column, but none the less this is critical information into our progress as a golfer. After all none of us learned to drive without first learning to put the key into the ignition. Spend some time on your grip this week and I look forward to taking another step with you next Tuesday.

Fairways and Greens!

This being my first year in the Ozarks, and the recent weather patterns has caused me to now twice acknowledge the coming of spring and with it Golf Season. I cannot say I am certain, but I hope this beautiful weather in finally here to stay.

Spring is the best time to be around a golf course, with the trees blooming and the grass taking its first deep shades of green for the year. It is easy to forget the climate it has just been through for the past several months, and the care it must be treated.

This year has been particularly bad with the warm temperatures early and then the recent dip back into freezing weather; our golf courses suffer tremendous stress, not to mention our superintendents. Whether maintaining a golf course like my new friend Travis or growing one in like my superintendent Toby, they need our patience and respect.

Think for a moment the work that you put into your own yard. We mow, edge, weed flower beds, water, fertilize and the list goes on and on. It can seem like our weekends are not long enough too accomplish everything. Now imagine that your yard is 200 times the size it is now? That is what it is like to be a Golf Course Superintendent.

I challenge each of you, who play what I consider to be the greatest game ever invented, to take a little more action in bettering your own golf course. Think about your last Nassau game where you hit that “perfect tee shot” only to have it come to rest in a divot? Or how many ball marks do you have to fix on Wednesday afternoon in order to try and make that fifteen foot birdie putt to tie up a pocketful of skins? Try a little harder while you are out there, just because a ball mark is not in your line, does not mean that you can not fix it while you wait your turn to putt.

Even in this modern era of golf course technology, remember a superintendent is only just one man. There a whole lot more of us out there tearing up the golf course everyday than there are of them to fix it. Let’s help out.

As a member of the PGA, I may have given this topic too much press. I am looking so forward to spending the coming months with you giving you tips to help you with your golf game and answering any queries you send me, I just do not want to spend all season explaining the best way to hit a three iron out of a divot.

This week join me in thanking your local superintendent, and trying to help him out. Next week it will be all golf!

Fairways and Greens!

The short game, as we discussed last week, is not only the most important part of a good scoring round it is also the most complex. From any spot around the green there may be a multitude of different shots you could choose to hit. All of which have different degrees of difficulty and potential outcomes.

The natural transition for most golfers, from full swing to short game, is into the “pitch” shot. This is because the “pitch” shot is essentially a shortened version of the full swing. It is similar in technique and address. I believe that these shots will begin for most golfers in the 50 to 75 yard range.

The length of the backswing and the tempo of the entire swing are reduced from that of a full shot to produce shots of various distances. Unfortunately, it is impossible to teach anyone how to coordinate a visual sense of distance with the length and tempo of swing that will get the ball close to the pin. Each golfer must learn this from experience.

The “pitch” shot is played with the ball inside the left heel, with the hands lined up evenly at the ball. The club should be started back low and straight, using only the hands, arms and shoulders moving as one unit. The length of the backswing, the turn of the hips and shoulders will all be less than that of a full shot, but should be proportional to the length of shot you are trying to hit.

The ultimate success of most pitch shots is measured by how quickly the ball stops after landing. The pitch shot from 40 to 75 yards is the shot where you have the best chance to get the ball to spin backwards after landing on the green. It takes the proper conditions to get good backspin even from the optimum distance. Deep rough, a lush fairway, wet grass of any length, or to a hard surfaced green are all factors that will inhibit putting backspin on the ball.

To get such backspin, the ball must be sitting upon close cropped grass with a firm base, and hit to a green that is relatively soft of at the very least has some cushion to it. It also helps to be hitting into a green that tilts towards you and if there is a slight headwind. To take advantage of the ideal conditions, two elements in the basic swing are critical. First, your takeaway must be low and second, your right knee must “kick” to the left.

The right knee “kick” is vital to ensure both the correct release of the hands and square contact with the ball. If you hold the right knee back, the right hand is forced to roll over the left at impact, closing the blade and imparting a hooking, running spin to the ball.

Good luck with you “pitch” shots. If properly executed you will be able to save many pars around the greens and see your scores drop dramatically.

Fairways and Greens!

With the steps of a full swing now behind us it is now time to begin to learn about the short game. Although most of us prefer to hit a “long ball” with the driver when we practice and emphasize it during the round it is out short game that will truly allow us to shoot better scores and thus become better players.

Today we begin the process of understanding what the short game is and will spend the coming weeks analyzing the various types of shots we must master to become a good player.

Very simply put the short game is any shot that does not require a full swing. In a way, the short game is the most interesting part of golf because of the variety of shots possible. A well struck full golf shot gives much pleasure, and can satisfy the power urge we all have, but in the end it is the short game that really makes the score.

I believe the short game embraces the wide range of shots from distances of around 75 yards to a couple of feet – pitches, chips, bunker shots and putts. The various techniques for these shots will vary greatly from the full swing we have been working on, but there are some similarities we must not forget.

Although, it may not seem important that you have a solid foundation for short shots since the swing is so much less forceful than for full swings, in fact balance and stability are even more critical. The slightest movement of the body on a chip shot or a three foot putt can cause a miss, whereas you might very get away with it on a full swing.

Knee flex is another essential element of the short game. If your knees are locked at address you will be unable to drive the knees through impact, which is a critical function in being able to produce spin from a flop shot or bunker shot.

Again our posture remains a constant factor. Short shots – especially those from just off the green, have a way of making us want to hunch our shoulders. This becomes the main reason for hitting poor shots – generally fat, or behind the ball. “Good Posture” - a straight back and a slight bend at the waist – are as essential to a good short game as they are to hitting long straight drives.

Next week we will discuss the differences in the “pitch shot” and the “chip shot” and when we should hit each shot during our round. Although many players use these words interchangeably, they are very different shots requiring very different execution. Both provide a unique result that will be best suited to specific locations around the green.

Fairways and Greens!

We have now broken our swing down into its most basic elements and discussed in detail these segments over the past weeks. Today we put all of the pieces together to make a full golf swing…

We begin at address with our feet, knees, hips and shoulders parallel to the target line, or in the “square” position we have discussed. Our weight is on the balls of our feet and our knees are comfortably flexed.

Begin the takeaway by bringing the club back low and straight away from the ball for about 18 inches. Our right hand drags the club back, while the arms and shoulders move in precisely the same direction. There is no movement from the waist down to this point in the backswing.

The backswing continues with the right hand cocking the wrists at about waist height, and lifting the club vertically. Now the right hip and shoulder turn as if on a swivel and the left knee kicks in towards the right leg. The left heel remains on the ground as the right foot absorbs about 60 percent of our weight.

The downswing begins the instant the club reaches the top of the backswing with your hips and knees sliding about six inches laterally to the left. About mid way through the downswing your hands should still be cocked and your weight has begun to shift to the left foot. To complete the downswing, we kick our right knee to the left.

At impact the hands have uncocked fully and are in the same position as they were at address. Our lower left side has now turned away from the target line. The club head should continue moving along the target line. The knees have remained comfortably flexed throughout the swing.

That is it… the golf swing. Now that we have learned it we must practice it. Practicing is one of the most misunderstood terms to golfers I communicate with. It does not simply mean going out and hitting a bunch of balls on the range. Practice requires discipline just as much as playing. You should always practice with very clear objectives in mind.

Try to simulate golf course conditions on the range. Switch clubs often, try to hit various shots such as fades and draws, high and low trajectory shots. Imagine your practice session being like a round of golf. How many times do you actually hit driver on the course? We are not learning how to compete in a long drive contest; we are learning to play golf. You must use all of your clubs for that.

It is time to quit practicing when your mind begins to wander and you are no longer trying to hit “shots” but are simply hitting balls. It is much better to practice for an hour with your mind thinking about your swing that it is to beat balls mindlessly for three hours.

Good luck with your practice session and enjoy your round.