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!