Too much practice

Heresy!

No less of an expert thanHarvey Penick wrote, in his little red book, "Just because two aspirin can cure a headache, don't take the whole bottle."

Just because some practice is necessary to learn the basics of the stroke, don't become a Range Rat.

First of all, every serious golfer wonders why he can't take his range swing to the course, until he learns the differences between the range swing and golf. 

1. On the range, you decide where you want to hit the ball; on the course, the target (the fairway, green, hole) is there, and you either hit it where you should or you've made a mistake. You don't get to decide.
   
2. On the range, you can hit 10 5-irons in a row, making changes until you're satisfied with the result, then hit a bunch more 5-irons, and convince yourself that your stroke is fine. But in reality, you've developed a stroke that is tailored for a particular situation that you'll never find on a golf course.

Once he gets onto a course and is playing, the range rat has in mind his perfectly tailored stroke, not the stroke he can expect on an average. That perfectly tailored stroke ALWAYS, ALWAYS sends the ball further than the expected average. Just two days ago, I stood on a par-3 hole and scoped the distance to the flag as 107 yards. The hole was cut very close to the front of the green, and the ground leading up to the green is sloped at about a 40º angle, so anything short is going to roll 20 feet down and 30 feet short. I know that, with the temperature hovering around 50º Fahrenheit and a 15-mph sidewind, my average hit with a 9-iron would be sufficient...but a sub-average hit with that club would leave a difficult, blind, uphill shot. So I took an 8-iron, and hit it pure. 40 feet past the flag, just off the putting surface. 

Even an average hit with the 8-iron would have been 10 feet past, but a sub-average hit would have a good chance of staying on the green, and would be a legitimate birdie try, given the hole location. I made my par with a simple chip and putt, missing birdie by less than a foot. And that was off of the worst possible result with the eight-iron.

What most golfers need to practice more is what I just described: analysing the situation, making decisions, and keeping score. That's golf.

Perfect swings? They don't exist.

Most serious golfers, as a round comes to a close, especially one in which they have performed more poorly than they expected (90+% of the time) will immediately head to the range to "correct" the swing "errors" that cost them their expected score. That's a waste, except for the people who profit from selling range balls. They'll never get a chance to replay today's game, and the next time they play, a different set of "errors" and "poor swings" will bedevil them again.

What the range rat doesn't ever grasp is that everyone's swing -- yours, mine, Jack's, Tiger's -- is pretty much the same day in and day out, but pretty much the same is not a pure repetition. There's so much going on in even the simplest swing action that variability is unavoidable.

Golf is nothing more than coping with that variability. You can't practice it away.

A reminder

I spent some time tonight talking with a novice, and it put me in touch with the way people -- all of us, but especially those starting to play golf as adults -- feel at the beginning.

They just want to hit the ball...and it's not easy. Moreover, they would be better off, by far, if they could convince themselves to learn how to swing a golf club, and then use the swing to hit the ball.

The important step is learning how to set up, get ready, execute a backswing, and let the forward swing be a reaction to the setup and backswing. 

When we mis-hit the ball, the natural inclination is to try to alter the swing. That way lies frustration. Learn the swing, practice it, familiarize yourself with it, take it to the course, set up, put the swing into motion.

Simple to say, difficult to do.

Hybrids -- last chance

Well, folks, I really tried, but from the time I started, and people told me how difficult it is to hit long irons, like the one and two, I worked to do the "most difficult" thing. I learned how to hit the low, boring 'stinger'. It's my go-to safety play when I need 200 yards, straight (yes, I've lost 20 or so yards since my youth).

I spent an hour on the great, grassy tees at Miles of Golf (the owner's name is Miles) beating balls with hybrids and long irons. Now the hybrids will find a home in my garage.

And the only reason I don't carry a 1-iron any more is because the 2-iron I use now is close to what my 1960s vintage 1-irons were, in both shaft length and face loft. And I now carry three wedges, not two.

Time marches on.

New driver!

Well, there is some point to technology after all. My new (previously-owned) Cleveland Hi-Bore really gives a different ballflight. Worth the $49.00 price tag!

On the count of seven

A short while ago I wrote about the seven step count I use. Now that I'm back to actually playing golf (although the course is in very rough shape, and thin hits at 39º will make anyone want a new pair of hands) I'm even more cognizant of how beneficial this is. It gives me a feeling of anticipation bordering on inevitability that I'll feel the sweet compression of the ball as I silently sound "SEVEN".

And why did I choose seven? Sailing the seven seas? Seven pillars of Wisdom? The magical number 7 plus or minus two? I don't know.

Just hit "NUMBER SEVEN" on wikipedia...7 really is quite the number!

A word to the young from the other side of youth

When I was a young man, I found out early that I would never be a long hitter; I lacked the talent, namely strength and flexibility. I decided if I was to enjoy the game, I'd have to live with whatever length I could muster with a controlled stroke.

There is always a debate about what's the most important stroke in golf -- the drive, short-game, long approaches, putting. It's all important, of course, but for every stroke, there are two elements to be controlled, distance and direction.

The truth is simply that control is purchased by giving up power. If I hit an 8-iron as hard as I can, I might be able to get 150 yards out of it, on a dry, windless day, level ground. If I take a controlled stroke, making sure the face is perpendicular to the path, and hit a high cut, the ball will stop about 100 yards away. So I know that my controlled distance is between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of my maximum.

Same thing with the driver; I might get about 270 from a well-struck drive at full throttle; but on a narrow fairway, a nice little 200-yard shot will make my day.

Now, if that narrow fairway has water on the left and trees on the right, and slopes to the left, a stronger golfer would just rear back and fly the trouble to a wider landing area beyond the narrow point. I admit, I've given in to that temptation, but I know the outcome, and it's not pretty. Would I like to have 50 more yards? Of course! I'm not a fool; but the one time in 10 I can pull it off simply isn't worth it, in terms of my scoring.

I've already gone past where I wanted to go with this, so I'll give out the Wisdom of the Ages: If you're very lucky, you'll live as long as I have, and you will become weaker, unable to get the distance you have now.

If you're past the age of 27 (like Tiger and Phil) you're already weaker and less flexible than you were at 27, and the process is on its way. You'd better learn how to hit to spots, under control, or when you get to be my age, you won't be able to compete with the likes of me.

And you won't enjoy it.

The past weekend

two more typical Michigan "Spring" days; frost delays, wind, cold... I've now completed my experiment and consider that my standard driver will be a persimmon, as will be the three wood. The backups include a laminate and two Tis.

And Kenny Perry, Mr. Nice Guy, lived up to his modus operandi and choked at the end.  

Yesterday...

It was windy, still some patches of snow on the ground, but I did the experiment. I played with the persimmon driver and 3-wood and just as I said, it was easier to control, and keep down into the headwinds and crosswinds, and I don't think I lost a single yard on the best hits.

So, I'll keep them in for the nonce.

Explanation of the loft x directional accuracy relationship

In the previous post, I wrote that the lower lofted clubs will produce "straighter" shots. What I meant was close to that. It's not the trajectory; the greater the loft angle, the more backspin vs. sidespin, and the less bend in the trajectory -- less hook and slice.

But -- and this is very much a concern -- The ball will always fly off the face of the club perpendicular to that face. If the sole of the club is parallel to the ground, then the shot will leave the face pointed toward the target. If the toe of the club is higher than the heel, the ball will start out more in the direction of the heel; if the heel is elevated, the ball will begin its flight toward the toe. 

For a right-handed player, if the ball is higher than the player's feet, the tendency would be to pull the ball to the left; lower than his feet, we tend to push to the right.

The greater the loft, the more severe the deviation of the initial flight.

And so, in the end, the lower-lofted driver is more likely to send the ball in the direction the face is aligned.

Woods in the wind

No, not Tiger...persimmon. I still have a couple of actual tree product drivers and 3-woods. My Citation driver is about 4 or 5 degrees stronger than the Ti wonder, with [of course] a much smaller face/hitting area/sweetspot. And a shorter shaft and about 2 ounces more weight (which amounts to 17%. And zero trampoline effect, but more gear effect.

All of these factors make it a tempting choice for an old geezer. 

• The smaller hitting area is no problem, because I don't create a lot of clubhead speed, and the ballmarks on the face of the bigger drivers indicate that I tend to be very close to the middle 95% of the time, anyway. 
• The slower one swings the club, the less feel one has, and the added weight of the persimmon club makes up for that, since feel = weight x speed. 
• The lower loft of the face means straighter shots and lower shots that won't plug in soft fairways.
• The smaller face means that I can tee the ball almost as low as I do for an iron tee-shot, and not have to use a special "modern driver swing" that catches the ball on the upswing.
• The only negative is that the modern ball just doesn't spin the way the old balata did, so there's less lift, but on a windy day...I might have to try that!

The new season begins.

And it's a cold, cold, windy start. Still debating and changing what's in the bag. Yesterday it was a 9.5 degree driver, Adams 3-wood, 2, 4-P MP 29, Cleveland 52, 58, 64 Wedges, Burke Blade...91, with two temp greens, one actual birdie. 1st 18-hole round of the year.

Today it's colder, and we're under a winter storm watch. I've switched out the driver to a 10.5 MacTec, put the 3-iron back in, and subbed the BH 57º with lottabounce for the 58 & 64 Wedges, and swapped the Voodoo in for the Burke.

And I may play today...or not.