Thank you

I want to thank all of you for reading my blog. I really enjoyed giving you guys some insight of the game of golf through my eyes. I hope that if you didn't already know something about the sport that you do now and I also hope that I have sparked some interest in you to go out and start playing this lovely game. I will continue to post on here and give you guys the most up to date information on what is going on in the golf world as well as any specific tips that you guys may have for me.

Gripping a Putter

In the majority of cases when a golfer is having problems with their putting, it tends to relate to how they grip their putter. A grip you use for your tee shot, or your iron play, should not be anything like how you hold the putter. When hitting a drive off the tee you hold the club with your fingers, allowing free motion of the wrists to generate power. When you’re putting, the wrists should not be involved at all, they should remain neutral throughout your putts.

Instead of gripping the club in the fingers, like you would a driver, move the putter grip up into the palm of your hands, so that the top of the putter grip is above the hinge of your wrists. This hinders any movement in the wrists and allows you to play a much smoother consistent stroke. If you’re gripping the putter correctly, it should feel like an extension of your forearms. In contrast, if you grip your driver as if you’re ready to tee off, you’ll get the feeling that the club is an extension of the wrists.
To help picture what this grip should look like, I have included two pictures below.

 

 

Other than the fundementals of holding a golf club there are many different ways to hold one. Personally there is no right or wrong way. It is whatever feels comfortable to you, as long as you are making the same consistent stroke everytime you putt. I have seen some very unorthodox putting grips but it was the same unorthodox grip for every putt which made them a very good putter. So go out there and find out what feels good to you and learn how to repeat it. 

Why I believe Tiger Woods is the Greatest Golfer of All Time

For me why Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer of all time is simple. To me it has way more to do with than just his actual playing ability. (even though I would still consider him the best). The reason I believe this is because of the attention that he has brought to the sport. Before Tiger, yes people still watched tournaments and attended them. But when Tiger joined the PGA tour everything changed. There were tens of thousands of people lining the fairways and surrounding the greens just to watch this kid play. He has changed the way that African Americans look at the sport. Opening a door for them to start to play. He has started many successful programs for kids to teach them the game of golf as well as set them up with essential tools to be an overall successful person. Other than his marriage scandal Tiger Woods is about as good as it gets when it comes to a professional athlete. He gives back and he still finds a way to dominate the sport of golf which I think amazes me the most.

Young Guys on Tour

Young golfers are beginning to take over the sport. Every year there is a new 20 year old who makes a statement in atleast one tournament that season. In the past few years though we have noticed that there is a good amount of 20-25 year old golfers who have been dominating the sport of golf. A few on that list would be:

• Dustin Johnson -25
• Rickie Fowler- 23
• John Huh- 22
• Ryo Ishikawa- 20
• Rory Mcllroy- 23
• Kyle Stanley- 24
• Keegan Bradley- 25
• Jordan Speith- 20

The bottom line is that the game of golf is changing. These young players are a prime example of that. In a field once dominated by household names, the above players are changing the sport. They are bringing in younger viewers, they are bringing a fresh energy to the PGA Tour that had been severely lacking since Woods dropped off the leaderboards. Now with Woods rising back up to lead this group of rising stars, the PGA Tour will find itself soon competing with Nascar for weekend fans.

An update to my golfing career

Right now I am currently in my offseason. Now I know what you're thinking, there isn't much to do for golf in the offseason, well you're wrong. I still have to work on my game and try to improve even though I cannot make it outside. With the Washburn University Men's Golf team I had a pretty successful fall season. You can always play better but overall I am content with my performance and the perfomance of the team. The spring season will begin in March and I cannot wait. This could be the longest 3 months of my life waiting to get back on the course with my boys. I'll keep you guys updated on my workout regiment and what I am doing to keep my skills from escaping me this
winter.

Michael Jordan comes out with Golf Shoe

The New York Daily Times reported that Keegan Bradley had enlisted the help of the hoops legend to help him rediscover the attitude that, Jordan believes, fuels Bradley's success.

"He just wanted me to be more cocky out there, more aggressive and I’m learning through him the mental side of what he was thinking and it’s a big help to me," said Bradley. "It’s a really good thing to have, somebody like that to be able to text and reach out to. He’s very approachable, very willing to give me information and help me out, which is really cool."

Bradley will once again team up with Phil Mickelson to take on Internationals Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel in Thursday's four-ball matches.

Most important Aspect of Golf

I think if we look at the physical aspect, our scratch golfer is probably in the mix with those guys. Maybe some coaching and he’s right there. Let’s assume he’s as physically fit as many of the other guys. If so, then we have to look at the intangibles. There must be things that our friend lacks that the guys on Tour have. Here are the things that come to mind:

§  Luck. Getting through Q-School and winning on the mini-tours can come down to getting the right breaks. Both on and off the course. Getting a good bounce or catching fire at the right time can mean the difference between a player moving up the ladder or going home with his tail between his legs.

§  Desire. Could it be that our scratch player friend doesn’t want it bad enough? What about the ones that do? Are they working hard enough? What about the ones that are, but that still don’t make it? There has to be enough desire to make sure the player is putting the work in: practice, diet, fitness. All the things that need to be done to excel.

§  Determination. This goes hand in hand with desire. With desire, you want something, but determination makes sure that you’re not going to take “no” for an answer. Watch the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” for a tutorial on determination. There must be enough determination to overcome all the things that make someone want to quit.

§  That leaves: Mental Game.

The more I think about it, the more I think that mental game could be the biggest factor keeping our friend off the tour (assuming that he has sufficient desire, determination, and luck). I don’t think that mental game is just limited to course management, though that’s a big part of it. I would include all of the following:

§  Excellent course management. Knowing how to play the course like a chess match.

§  Playing within oneself. A player must know his limitations and play to his own strengths.

§  Mental toughness. A player of that caliber must find a way to overcome fear. Fear of failure, fear of ridicule, whatever.

§  Along the lines of mental toughness is the ability to deal with pressure. At high levels, pressure exists internally and externally. The best players must find a way to deal with it.

§  There must be a great level of confidence. Confidence in his swing, in his mental game. Confidence that keeps him free from intimidation.

§  Aggressiveness. That doesn’t just mean always “going for it”. It can include the ability and desire to put opponents away. It can mean taking a chance when the chips are down.

There are probably many more aspects to the mental game, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.

I see all those aspects of the mental game as things that can be nurtured and developed. If that’s true, then it means that our friend, the scratch player, given the proper amount of desire, determination, and luck could develop the mental game to make it.

How to be Effect on the Driving Range

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time at the driving range during golf season. I spend a lot of time watching other players so I can try to learn things about the golf swing. I observe different tendencies and the results they produce. One thing that surprises me is how many people practice without purpose. It’s sad because the people I’m talking about obviously are dedicated enough to put the time in. But the return on their investment is not being maximized.

Without a doubt, there are lots of people who hit the driving range every once in a while to get into a groove or even just to have a little fun. These aren’t the people I’m talking about. But I do see a lot of the same people there repeatedly over the course of a season. In many cases, these people are engaging in the “Rake ‘n Beat”. They hit one ball and rake another one over with their club and hit it and do it over and over until they’re out of balls. It’s as if their practice session is just a trip from A to B.

Maybe you’re one of the people I’m talking about. When you practice, do you use the same pre-shot routine that you’d use on the course? Do you hit each shot with a purpose? Do you watch each shot to completion and learn from it? If not, then you’re probably not maximizing your practice time. It’s much better to hit fewer balls, but hit each one with a purpose, than it is to rake ‘n beat as many balls as you can.

You might be wondering what “hitting with a purpose” means. I suggest the following guidelines as a start:

§  Go through the same pre-shot routine on the range that you’d do on the course. That means for every ball. It’s hard to build that discipline and in fact, that’s one area of my own practice that needs work.

§  Before hitting a shot, always have at least a specific target in mind. Aim at a tree or house or light pole in the distance. But always hit at a target. When you’re playing a round, every single shot will be directed at a specific target, not just thrown down range (it should, anyway!)

§  Before making a shot, imagine what you want the ball flight to do. Are you trying to hit a draw? Fade? Straight? If you don’t have a plan (before you execute the shot) for what you want that shot to do, then you can’t judge the effectiveness of your swing.

§  Observe the wind that day. How is it affecting your distance and direction? Are you making subconscious wind adjustments that will translate to poor directional control later on the course? Windy conditions can be used to your advantage at the range. You’re bound to play a round in the wind eventually, so spend some time practicing in it to learn how to make proper adjustments.

§  Try and get a feel for your club distances. Depending on your range, it might be difficult to get hard numbers to take to the course because the balls they use on the range may be made to fly shorter distances or may be beat up some. But your distances should at least be consistent. For example, if you’re seeing swings of 10+ yards on pitching wedge shots, then you have a problem with consistent ball striking and should be working on that.

Sometimes practice gets monotonous and it’s hard to stay focused. One technique I like to use is playing my regular course in my imagination. I’ll start with a ball and imagine I’m on the first tee. At my course, the ideal shot is a 250 yard fade off the tee, so I’ll get my 3-wood out and play that exact shot. From there, whatever happened, I’ll play the next shot as if I had gotten that same result on the course. If I slice right, then I know I’m punching back out of the trees and going from there so I’ll execute that shot. If I hit it perfect, then it’s a 2 iron down to the bottom of the hill and I’ll execute that shot instead. I continue this until I get through 18 “holes”.

If you don’t normally practice with purpose, then give it a try over your next few practice sessions. I think you’ll start noticing a difference.

Winter Drills

Living in Kansas we are often faced with whether that a lot of states don’t experience. For starters we have very cold winters with strong winds, when in Texas right now it is sunny and calm. Having lived in Topeka my whole life I have realized that you still have to find a way to stay on top of your game because the schools in the south get to practice year round. I’m going to share with you some of the basic drills you can do while staying warm inside.

The first drill you can do is set a cup down about 8 feet in front of you and make 50 putts from there. Then scoot it back to around  12-15 feet and make another fifty. This is an important drill because short game is the key to success when it comes to golf so you need to make sure that you are always working on your putting even when you can’t actually get outside to play. The second drill you can do is get out a wedge and pick a spot on the floor and hit to that spot. Make it a goal to either get it a few inches past every time or leave it short every time to work on your distance control around the green. The better you’re you short game is the easier it will be to come back playing at your full potential in the spring. Along with these drills you should strive to do around 100 pushups and 200 crunches.

The right clubs for you

I am not one to blame my equipment on the golf course. If my shot goes awry, it is almost always because of a mistake I made in the swing. That said, there are certain things women can do to make sure they are giving themselves the best chance at success. In the age we live there are literally thousands of different options for iron sets out there. So what should you look for? Below are three key components of a good iron set for women golfers.

Lightweight

First, you want to find a set of clubs that has a light overall weight. The equation is simple – the lighter the club, the faster you can swing it, and the farther you will hit the ball. Don’t confuse lightweight with cheap, however. You want to search out a set of clubs that is well-built by a good manufacturer. The name brands you have heard of all make quality products, but there are other good ones out there so be sure to do some research before buying.

Right Shaft

Shaft flex is probably the most overlooked, and important, aspect of selecting a set of clubs. The job of the shaft is to load the club up with energy during the downswing and unleash it at the ball. If the shaft is either too stiff or too soft for your swing, it will not do the job properly. Picking out a ladies shaft is a good start, but that might not be right for everyone. The best method is to find a teaching pro that does club fittings and have them test your swing with a variety of shafts. This should only cost $30-$40, and will be well worth it when buying your new set confident that you have clubs well suited for your game.

Low Center of Gravity

The main job of any iron is to get the ball up off the ground. It is not teed up as with a driver, so we need to do most of the work in getting the ball to rise into the air. A great start toward that goal is irons with a low center of gravity (or COG). By putting much of the weight of the club head into the sole of the iron, club builders create that low COG effect. When you strike the ball, the COG will be below the middle of the ball, and therefore cause the ball to climb up into the sky and land softly at its destination.

Don’t go on fighting your clubs thinking there is something wrong with your swing. By making sure that your set of irons is perfect for you, one variable is eliminated from the golf equation. A good idea is to take your current set to the aforementioned club fitting and start there. See what is working and what isn’t with the clubs you have now, and that will give you a place to start when shopping for new sticks. Remember also that irons have a much longer useful life than a driver does, so don’t hesitate to invest some money in set  that you can use for years to come.