Goodbye

Goodbye. And good luck.

The end is here.

No more golf at Ratfuck [Radrick] Farms. Played the front nine yesterday from the tips (why not? score posting is over) and as I was teeing off on #9, grounds crew was pulling the rakes from the traps on #8. There were no tee markers or benches, and the hole locations hadn't changed in a week. So my season is over.

After 18 years...

In 1991, when I was a boy of 51, I entered a few Senior Tour qualifiers. Yes, I'm just 6 months younger than Jack and 7 younger than Lee. I knew I could never compete with them, but I thought I had a shot.

On the third hole of the first event, I hit one poorly judged, but well struck, shot, which led to a 9. On the next hole, I clipped a tiny branch with my tee shot, made triple by missing a 6 inch putt, and tightened up as I never had before. I finished the round with a birdie on the #1 handicap hole, for a smooth 103.

Since then, I had no rounds in the 60s and damned few in the 70s. I didn't understand the damage until last Saturday.

Playing golf in mid-November in Michigan is a rare treat, and I was having a so-so round. In five holes I had a birdie, two pars, a bogey and a double...I got up to the 6th tee, the toughest hole on the course, and made myself relax every muscle in my body. I made a mediocre pass at the ball, but it had good trajectory. For the rest of the round, that was all I tried to do...relax and let the stroke occur without thought.

Best ballstriking since 1981! I had the yips and didn't know it...not the putting yips, the golf yips.

But that's over now.

Generating Power

Power is a function of the energy transferred from the clubhead to the ball. Force is mass times acceleration, not force times speed. A clubhead which strikes the ball moving at 80 mph was moving at a different speed a foot before impact. That speed was either faster or slower than 80 mph. If it was slower, the clubhead is accelerating as impact begins, and will transfer more energy to the ball than if it was moving faster before impact and was actually slowing down.

The easiest, surest way to make your clubhead accelerate into the ball is to shorten your backswing and lengthen your follow-through.

You must understand that the faster the clubhead is moving, the harder it is to control its location. If you practice just making good contact with a compact backswing and a long follow-through, you will develop power without trying to do so. What feels like a compact backswing will, over time, lengthen itself out, and produce more powerful shots, without your doing anything but trying to make good contact with the ball.

Just don't try to do anything but make good contact. As you learn to do this, you will become more confident, and what feels easy and compact will become easy and less compact, i.e. extended. And your shots will fly longer.

End of the season

And not one club in my bag from the beginning. Now playing with Ping Rapture driver, Adams a3 hybrid 3 & 5FW, 3-5 a3 hybrids, 6-9 a3 irons, 50º [bent from 52º] and 58º Mizuno wedges and a 64º Cleveland. Old Ping Anser putter.

Age and Score

I've reached the age where my age in years (69) is a larger number than my lifetime best score (68); that was when I was 27, and repeated a few times in my later 20s/early 30s. My best ageplus score is age plus 8, a 74 three years ago when I was 66. Full disclosure: that was a short course, but a tricky one.

Equipment

The R7 Driver (TaylorMade) I'm using now is the best I have EVER used. Period.

The original Ping Anser is my putter of choice, for now.

I've learned to like Cleveland Wedges. Thinking of getting three groovy models before they go out of fashion.

Irons? Right now, 3456 Callaway BB, 789E, Hogan Apex Forged or Apex Plus (the E there would have to be the Forged). Could substitute 34 hybrids, or even go all Apex Forged, but I'll try the AF/BB combo this weekend, with old Cleveland 49 and S56.