Common Threads Of Your Great Rounds

On the first tee at Glen Dornoch in Myrtle Beach

I haven’t had a great round this year, but my last time out was a real good one.  I got to thinking about the common threads shared between good rounds.  My findings:

Thread One.  The driver is clicking.  On most of my great rounds, I’m hitting it hard, on the center of the face, and finding fairways.  Great driving makes the game so much easier.  Even easier than great putting because sometimes you are striking it poorly, putting great, and scrambling for par.  During these great rounds, my putter was not that hot in terms of total putts, which probably had to do with a high number of GIRs I hit.  If my driver is good and I hit 14 or 15 greens, I can live with 33 or 34 putts because I’m still going to be around level par.  If I hit 15 greens and take 27 putts, I’m doing the wrong thing for a living.  Anyway, the big stick is the key.

Thread Two.  I’m playing with better players.  Several of these rounds were in competition and the presence of excellent players.  Wanting to do well against them sharpened my concentration.  In my most recent round, I joined a single for the front nine at my club.  He had a decent game and generally played bogey golf.  I shot three or four over.  But at the turn, we were joined by a couple young guys who played at scratch or better.  As we progressed, I was hitting the ball well and these guys were blowing it by me.  But I felt some weird juices start to flow and played very solid on the inward half.  All three of us had a few birdies and kept it around even par.  It was very cool and I thoroughly enjoyed testing my game against younger stronger players.  A couple years back, a similar thing happened.  I was getting ready to play at my local muni and was joined by two of the course’s pros on the first tee.  Same story as these guys were ripping it miles past me off the tee, but I played my game and really concentrated well.  My friend, Jim at TheGratefulGolfer wrote a nice piece on the aspect of playing with better players.  Check it out.

This better player phenomena can be a double-edge sword if you are not hitting the driver well or are intimidated.  Back in the 1980s, I was working as an apprentice in the Mid Atlantic PGA Section.  About two dozen assistant pros gathered for our summer meeting at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland.  This is where they hold annual U.S. Open sectional qualifying, and after our meeting we agreed to have a tournament among ourselves.  I’m thinking, “crap”; hard course, tough competition, and normally club pros play in all kinds of events, but mostly pro-ams and in the company of amateur partners with inferior games.  Not the case here, plus this was my first tournament playing against professionals.  I knew all these guys were way better than me and I was sick with fear and intimidation.  Needless to say, the day did not go well.  I shot an 86 and finished last.

Thread three:  You play the right set of tees.  Let’s re-phrase:  You never have a great round playing from the wrong tees.  In my recent round, on the first tee, I told my front nine companion I would play the blue tees and he should play any set that he wanted.  He replied, “I probably shouldn’t but I will play the blues with you.”  He was right, and you could see him pressing all day.  Plus, when the big hitters joined us, we all played from the blues and this poor fellow let that get in his head.

So those are mine, do you have any common threads during your great rounds?  Please share and play well!

What are the Do’s and Don’ts of taking a golf lesson?

World class instructor Hank Haney with Charles Barkley.
Photo by Associated Press

As golf season gets ramped up, many of us will be investing in lessons in an effort to improve.  High handicappers right down to touring professionals all benefit from formal instruction.  I took my first lesson of the season last weekend and have scheduled a series every two weeks for the balance of the spring.  I’m reminded of a few Do’s and Don’ts when taking lessons:

Do:

1. When you sign up for lessons, ensure your instructor has the “PGA” acronym after his/her name.  Some courses and training facilities employ instructors or managers who give golf lessons at a discounted price.  If they aren’t PGA certified, don’t go for it.  Membership in the Professional Golfers Association is an indicator that your instructor has spent the necessary time in the business, has been formally trained on how to teach, and has given many lessons.
2. Prior to or during your first lesson, set clear expectations with your instructor.  Let them know your skill level, current handicap (if you keep one), what your goals are, and how much time you have to devote to practice.  You may get a completely different lesson if you indicate you plan on practicing every day, compared to if you can only devote one day per week.
3. During instruction, ask questions!  Your level of engagement will often get you a better lesson.  Golf pros are human.  They get bored at work too and often perform better when fully engaged with their students.  If something doesn’t feel right or if you’re getting it and enjoying the success, dialog it.
4. Take full swing lessons outdoors on the range.  Some instructors will teach at indoor facilities and you can make improvements using a simulator, but there is no substitute for seeing actual ball flight.  Sometimes what feels good on a simulator may not be the shot pattern you want.
5. At the completion of your lesson, reiterate with your instructor two or three key points that you’re going to work on until the next lesson.
6. Practice between lessons.  Sometimes during a lesson, you may perform poorly because the changes you’re making are difficult to implement.  Try and get out multiple times between lessons and reinforce what you’ve been shown, and do it at your own pace.  Often, you will “get it” during practice, because you’re able to take your time and you won’t feel like you’re being watched.
7. World class instructor Hank Haney advocates taking 100 swings per day in your back yard.  Do this even if you can’t hit balls and try to feel the change you’re working on.  It’s the fastest way to ingrain the new feel.

Don’t:

1. Try and change too much at once.  Learning can be confusing, and we learn best by focusing on one concept at a time.  Sometimes even a seasoned professional will give you too much to think about.  The pro wants you to succeed and if the first or second swing change doesn’t immediately work, they can introduce more in an effort to find something that resonates.  When this happens, tell your pro you’d like to focus on one concept and ask what that should be.
2. Play the day after a lesson and expect to score well.  Your mind will be in mechanical mode and you will be playing “golf swing” not golf.  Forget your score and just focus on enjoying your time in the outdoors and trying to focus on the changes you’re trying to implement.
3. Seek swing tips from your inexperienced playing partners.  Best to stick with your pro’s advice and remember the old axiom, “Amateurs teach amateurs to play like amateurs.”
4. Fail to practice between lessons and then claim you got a bad lesson when the changes don’t work on the golf course.
5. Forget about short game and putting.  Instruction is not all about full swing, although the vast majority of lessons are given on the practice tee.  Ask your professional about a short game lesson or if they’ll take you out on the course and play a few holes to help you with your course management.

Got any more Do’s and Don’ts?  Please share and good luck if you’re taking lessons.  Play well!

PGA Major Meltdown!

Quick question:  What’s the measure of greatness in professional golf?  Short answer:  The number of major victories one has accumulated.  We don’t consider money rankings, driving distance, Vardon Trophy (scoring average), or even FedEx Cup championships.  The sole measure of historical excellence is how many Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship victories one has.  This is not dissimilar to the NFL where Super Bowl titles are the standard, or Major League Baseball where World Series victories are king.  Tennis, the other major individual sport, measures its greats by number of Grand Slam titles won.

So why is the PGA Tour compromising the integrity of the major championships with it’s insane scheduling in 2016?  Take a look at the backside of the 2016 PGA Tour schedule and you’ll notice for the first time The Open Championship and PGA Championship are being contested only 11 days apart!  This is simply not enough time for the world’s best to recover physically and mentally, make the journey back across the Atlantic, and for excitement to rebuild in the fan base for the final major.  In a normal year, each event is generally spaced one month apart, with the exception being the two months between golf’s Masters and U.S. Open.

At first glance I attributed this to the presence of the 2016 Olympic golf event which is scheduled for August 11-14 and happens to fall right smack on the PGA Championship’s traditional window (one month from The Open).  But Olympic Golf is not the growth panacea everyone thought it was and The PGA Tour knows it.  At best it’s an inconsequential event with an unfair qualification process (only four players per country are allowed to participate eliminating many of the world’s best).  At worst, it’s a classic example of exceeding the economic law of diminishing returns with too much golf on TV.  I think after a couple tries, it probably will join baseball on the list of dropped Olympic sports.  Think otherwise?  Think Olympic golf will command the TV stage?  Think again.  The suits at PGA headquarters have scheduled the John Deere Classic to be contested simultaneously with the Olympic tournament.  And the USGA put the U.S. Senior Open in the same time slot as well.  When baseball was last played in the Olympics in 2008, Major League Baseball played right through the window and didn’t even give the Olympic tournament a sniff of concern.  I’m hoping golf plays out in a similar fashion.

Olympic golf feels like an attempt to force growth in an incorrect way.  The recent golf market contraction is due to the receding Tiger Woods wave.  As Tiger plays less, fewer folks tune in.  It’s a natural phenomenon that can’t be fought.  But cheapening the integrity around the existing major championships is absolutely the wrong approach and needs to be fixed.  The tour has the ability to shift schedules around and should flip-flop The PGA Championship with The Wyndham Championship, and move the former into the August 18-21 window.

On a global scale, the good news is that golf has a chance of re-entering a golden age with a core of young superstars take the sport by storm.  To allow natural rivalries to form between Jordan, Rory, Jason, and Rikie, the PGA needs to ensure the integrity of its competitions is on the highest level.  It should start with an adjustment to the 2016 schedule.

What do you think they should do?

Ted Bishop: The Latest 140 Character Casualty

By now, most of you have learned of Ex-PGA President Ted Bishop’s dismissal for making sexist remarks while criticizing Ian Poulter on Twitter.  Countless celebrity types have quit social media for the same reason and there’s a lesson to be learned:  You need to keep it positive and clean when using social media.  It’s astounding that so many folks do damage to their reputations, lose jobs, and feel forced to disengage because they cannot filter their brains before firing off a 140 character vent.

Putting this in perspective, look at Bishop.  As of this writing, he had 4,246 Twitter followers.  Twitter purports to have 271 million active users world wide.  Let’s assume 200 million are real, so the math still indicates that 99.99% of Twitter users don’t care what Bishop thinks about or has to say.  Bishop is not a celebrity but a well known individual, and yet he managed to get himself fired based on a random thought consumed by one of the 00.01% of worldwide users who cared to follow him.  The thought is sobering.  It’s not about the content of his comments (many of us have thought and expressed much worse in private), but how such a person of prominence could get himself dismissed for a relatively innocuous muttering.  If he’d have made it in private, there would be no issue.  If he’d have called Poulter and had it out directly, again no issue, but put it out in public with no context, and the damage was done.

Those of us who use Twitter, Facebook, and various blogging tools like this one should be careful.  You may think you’re relatively unknown, but the wrong post can do damage.  Personally, as a user of all three tools, I prefer to blog because your thoughts can be explained in depth and with greater context.  It’s also a forum for folks to respond/rebut, and as an author, you can moderate the conversation.  So whatever tool you use, be mindful to keep it clean and stay civil.

The U.S. Will Win The 2014 Ryder Cup!

Okay, here me out before making my reservation for a suite at St. Elizabeth’s.  Right now the British bookmakers are sending the European Team off as an overwhelming 1:2 favorite in the 2014 Ryder Cup.  These are the same guys who had Tiger Woods at 16:1 for the 2014 Open Championship, and those were phony odds.  These are phony as well and are simply the reflection of the betting public’s irrational biases.

The miscalculation is being driven by the recent whippings administered by the Euros.  Since 1985 they are sporting a dominating 9-4-1 record but this year will be different.  A quick look at the data yields an interesting revelation.  The secret to Euro success has been their team approach to competition.  No individual is above the team.  They also enjoy terminal underdog status and have leveraged the American’s penchant for individual play over team.  Nobody epitomizes the “me first” mentality on the U.S. side more than Tiger Woods.    Is there a more narcissistic player on the planet?   The American’s have followed the lead of their best player and got caught up in the individual career achievement mentality, so much so that they struggle with the mindset of placing the team ahead of themselves.

Since 1985, the Euro’s hold a 58.5 to 53.5 advantage in points in foursomes (alternate shot) and a dominating 65.5 to 46.5 advantage in four balls – the two team formats.  Even as they have been dominated, the U.S. has still been able to maintain a slight edge in singles play (84.5 points to 83.5).  It’s clear they prefer singles to team.  With Woods off the U.S. team the mindset will change.  Forget about the big names on the Euro side, or lack of on the U.S.  I can’t wait to see who the U.S. version of Ian Poulter is and I don’t think the Euro’s are comfortable in the role of overwhelming favorite.  The huge underdog U.S. squad will get it done.

Throwing Tiger under the bus one more time, I’ll make my Final prediction:  U.S. 14 1/2 – Europe 13 1/2.

How do you think this plays out?

Are you “Golfing” if you relax the rules?

A recent segment on The Golf Channel’s Morning Drive  broached the subject of playing golf with a relaxed set of rules, and it’s fostering a spirited debate.  The question:  Are you playing golf if you aren’t abiding by The Rules of Golf?  Golf is a unique sport because we referee ourselves, but I believe you can play golf by a different set of rules depending on the venue and type of competition.   The most important rule is that everyone in your group or the competition play by the same set, even if you are in technical violation of USGA or R&A standards.

The most common rule players break is rule 1-1 that states you must hole your ball with a stroke.  Essentially when we take putts, we are in violation.  Weekend golfers take putts.  The second rule most folks break is the various permutations for lost balls.  Most just drop  as close to where they lost it and count one penalty stroke.  I believe, if agreed upon, this is permissible, because it speeds the game up.  If you post a handicap round that included a lost ball that was played in this fashion, you are posting for a lower score than you actually shot, which is the opposite of sandbagging, and again, I have no problem.

Where it gets dicey is for folks who don’t play the ball down.  I play it down and many of my weekend partners do not.  You gain a huge advantage of improving your lies in the rough, as well as in the fairway.  If there’s no money on the line, I’m fine this transgression, but it’s where I draw the line for personal integrity.   The other relaxed rules about picking up after double par and limiting searches for two minutes make sense as well.

I have played in sanctioned Mid-Atlantic PGA events, Pro-Am competitions, club championships, member-guests, outings for charity, weekend money matches, and just for fun.  Each of these games was played by a different set of rules (some with a local rules sheets, others without).  Each time I believe I can state I was “playing golf” even though I may have been in technical violation of some USGA rules.  Generally, the  more serious the game, the more closer you’ll usually have to conform to the official Rules of Golf.

Do you believe in relaxing the rules?  If so, which ones to do you bend or break most often?

 

 

2014 British Open Picks

Hoylake, from golfclubatlas.com

Picking a winner for the 2014 British Open Championship is an exercise in deciphering the actual probabilities of victory from the preferences of the betting public.  There is considerable money to be made betting against the current John Q trend lines.  Consider, U.S. Open Champion Martin Kaymer is at 20:1 in early action with Tiger Woods leaping ahead of him at 16:1.  Are you kidding?  Kaymer is in awesome form, has his head screwed on right, and is a multiple recent major winner.  The smart money is on him and Adam Scott.  Tiger looks about as well oiled as the 38-year old Huffy sitting in my garage with the chain off.  The stiffness and restricted back swing on display at the recent Quicken Loans National  should have Tiger in the 150:1 range.

Rory McIlroy is the pre-tournament favorite at 10:1, but doesn’t play well enough in this perennial home game and will not win it.  He is looking good in early action at the Scottish Open and we’ll be watching to see if the positive momentum he gained from Woz-gate changes his personal and professional performance around major time.

Could one of the B.P.T.N.H.W.A.M. contenders take it this year?  How do you officially get on this list?  Is it fair to keep someone on past the age of 40?  I think not, so Steve Stricker comes off at 47.  Of the five remaining principals, Henrik Stenson has been the closest and doesn’t appear to psych himself out and warrants considerable support.  Sergio Garcia has played well on this course but he doesn’t have the stones with the flat stick to ever win a major.  It’s not happening this week for Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, or Jason Day.  Actually, Day has some good potential, but I’d like to see him  playing more frequently and try less to time his game around the majors.

So, when do we put Jordan Spieth on this list?  He’s clearly one of the best players in the world even if he still can’t order a beer with his wings at Hooters.  I’m a huge Spieth fan and like him for a top 10 but he’s too young for the list and will likely break through at The Masters or U.S. Open.

Dark horse look-outs:  Jim Furyk is at ease with himself again, is playing well, and contended on this venue in 2006.  Every year we see an older player make a move at The Open and this year it’s him.  Phil Mickelson has the mind and experience to win this, but different parts of his game go out of sync too frequently and I fear the age of Phil contending in every major is quickly vanishing.

Your 2014 British Open predictions:

Adam Scott:  Champion

Martin Kaymer:  Runner-up

Jim Furyk:  Sneaks into third

Rory McIlroy = Lack of Character!

Very disappointed in Rory’s withdrawal shenanigans at The Honda Classic yesterday.  I’m not buying this toothache excuse one bit and this is looking more like someone with amazing talent and a poor work ethic, who is struggling mentally because of a bad decision to change equipment.  He’s exhibiting a lack of character more on the lines of what we would expect from a John Daly.

Being seven over-par after eight holes, Rory was clearly on his way to posting a round in the mid-80s.  Last year, Rory won the treasured Vardon Trophy over Tiger Woods by .03 strokes per round.  Posting a total hack-a-thon number could cripple an attempted repeat.  The embarrassment of the defending champ totally chopping and the unwillingness to admit he’s struggling with his new equipment forced the withdrawal.  Throw in last season’s run of bad play (attributed to an unwillingness to practice) and we’re getting a very unpleasant picture forming of our world’s number one player.

So breaking news Rory:  This is golf and we all hack once in a while.  Man up and post your score.  What do you think he should have done?

What are the Do’s and Don’ts of golf practice?

Lately, I’ve been getting quite a few inquiries on what to do and not do while practicing golf.  Here we go:

• Do find a PGA professional for lessons.  Make sure you trust him/her and that their teaching style melds with the way you learn.
• Do work on your short game.    Dedicate 75% of your practice time to see the quickest improvement.
• Do simulate game conditions.  This will help you transition your practice to the course.  
• Do develop a pre-shot routine for every club in the bag and repeat it for each practice shot you hit.
• Do use alignment sticks as an aid for correct setup and for dialing your mind into the target on short game shots (and putts).
• Do film your swing and review it regularly.  What you think you are doing often is not what you are doing.
• Don’t become a range robot and rake ball after ball into the same position shooting at the same target.  
• Don’t confuse practice with warm-up before a round.  Never work on swing mechanics right before you play; it will screw your head up on the course.  Just get loose and relax.
• Don’t practice extraordinarily long putts.  You want to see your lags get close and expunge any visions of three-putting.  30-40 footers should be the max.
• Don’t accept swing instruction from well-meaning friends.  Amateurs teach amateurs to play like amateurs.  (See #1 Do above.)
• Don’t work on more than one mechanical change at a time.  You’ll become a swing pretzel if you do.

There you have them, now Do get to work.  Good luck!

2013 Top Five Lists!

Here we go with my top five’s for 2013.  What are yours?

Top Five Players of All Time:

1. Jack Nicklaus
2. Tiger Woods
3. Byron Nelson
4. Ben Hogan
5. Sam Snead

Top Five Tournaments to watch:

1. The Ryder Cup
2. The Masters
3. The U.S. Open
4. THE PLAYERS Championship
5. The Open Championship

Five most popular players of all time:

1. Arnold Palmer
2. Tiger Woods
3. Jack Nicklaus
4. Fred Couples
5. Phil Mickelson

Five least popular players of all time:

1. Colin Montgomerie
2. Tiger Woods
3. Vijay Singh
4. Tom Weiskopf
5. Scott Hoch

Five greatest golf courses in the world:

1. Augusta National
2. Old Course St. Andrews
3. Pebble Beach
4. Oakmont
5. Pine Valley

Top five legendary tempers:

1. Tommy Bolt
2. Tom Weiskopf
3. Steve Pate
4. Pat Perez
5. Woody Austin

Five purest swings to watch:

1. Ben Hogan
2. Ernie Els
3. Fred Couples
4. Rory McIlroy
5. Sam Snead

Five ugliest swings to watch (but not emulate):

1. Jim Thorpe
2. Jim Furyk
3. Moe Norman
4. Calvin Peete
5. John Daly

Honorable mention:  Charles Barkley

There you have them.  What have I missed if anything?  Please weigh in!

2012 British Open Picks

This year’s British Open Championshipwill go to the player who can mentally withstand the rigors and punishment of a tough links style golf course and embrace the experience for what it is.  History with the event is almost as important as good form, which is why guys like Tom Watson continue to contend late into their 50s and 60s.  Not saying Watson is a first pager but I would not be surprised if an old timer challenges through a couple of rounds.  The last time The Open was contested at Lytham and St. Annes

Royal Lytham and St Annes

was in 1996 and Jack Nicklaus, at age 56, was tied for 3^rd after two rounds which sent a chill up everyone’s spine.  Nothing changes much in Open golf from year to year and most of the usual contenders should be right there on Sunday.

The principals:

With his recent successes, Tiger Woods is the overwhelming favorite in most betting houses and warrants significant action.  Tiger last played at this venue as an amateur and finished tied for 22^nd.  His performance in the 2012 majors has been lackluster and his missed cut at Greenbriar perplexing.  Yes, with his tour leading three wins, we can say Tiger is back, but I’m not convinced.  The Tiger of yesteryear didn’t miss cuts in ANY events and Greenbriar will be the second in his last six tournaments.  The greatness potential and mental toughness are there, the consistency is not.  The best case for Tiger is that the rest of the world’s best are playing lousy right now.

Got a sneaky good feeling about Ernie Els this week.  He was in good form at the U.S. Open and finished in the top ten.  He finished second at this venue in 1996 so he probably likes the course, and the style of play suits his game and personality.

I’m off the Rory McIlroy bandwagon.  Show me some consistency before I’ll ride again.

Lee Westwood, clearly has inherited the title of Best Player To Have Never Won A Major.  Off his game at Alstom last week with a tie for 40th but will contend this week.  As usual, needs help on the greens.

Defending champion Darren Clarke had his 15 minutes of fame and will not contend.

On the rise:  Dustin Johnson is making a speedy recovery from his back problems, has been in good form as of late, and finished tied for second last year.  I like his chances.

How does bright orange contrasted against a bleak grey sky coming down the stretch with the lead on Sunday sound?  Yes, Rickie Fowler has a good record at The Open and was hot earlier in the year.  That final round 84 at The Memorial still bugs me, but I’m warming to his chances.

Mojo pick:  Justin Rose.  He’s finished 21st at the U.S. Open but last five European events have been top 10s.  Wish he’d play a little more but I think he could be ready.  Sensing a big week.

Final 2012 Open Picks:

It doesn’t take much courage to pick Tiger to win the Claret Jug but he gets it done on mental toughness and is back on the major chase.

Runner up:  Lee Westwood; title retained. . . AGAIN.

Third:  Ernie Els; Big Easy gets close but no cigar.

2012 TPC Wrap-Up

Strange sort of PLAYERS Championship this year characterized by a lack of star power at the top, with the exception of Rickie Fowler, and no dynamic pulse pounding finish.  Again, #16, 17, and 18 played pivotal parts, but I felt like I was watching a fleet of large ships all leaking oil and trying to get to port.

Matt Kuchar

Congrats go to Matt Kuchar, for leaving the smallest oil slick, and for taking the crystal while maintaining the best attitude and biggest smile on tour.  By historical standards, Kuchar won this in traditional style by finishing 3rd in GIR which is always the key stat.  My picks of Luke Donald (6th) and David Toms (T-10th) played out well but they were never really in contention.  I was very disappointed in Hunter Mayhan’s performance as his ball striking failed him and he missed the cut.

Final impressions on the other principals:

• Tiger Woods:  T-40th at The Masters, T-40th at THE PLAYERS.  Probably the 40th best player in the world.
• Rickie Fowler:  This guy is the real deal.  Goes all out and made key birdies on 16 and 17 and had a great look at another on 18.  LOVE to watch him in the hunt.
• Lee Westwood:  Another good ball striking week but same old story with the putter.
• Has anyone noticed that Charlie Wi cannot play on the weekend?  Poor Charlie is 14th on tour with his pre-cut scoring average (70.04) and 165th in final round scoring (73.11).
• Kevin Na:  3rd round leader and total basket case on the tee with more false starts, waggles, practice swings and self admonishments BEFORE THE BALL IS STRUCK than I can remember.  Don’t think it would be pleasant playing with Kevin until he gets these worked out and was worried that Kuchar would get distracted.  Not the case, though.
• Rory McIlroy:  Didn’t drive it straight, didn’t hit greens, didn’t make the cut.  Didn’t have high hopes for him this week but he underachieved even my lowly expectations, and again on one of the biggest stages.

Is there a magic move in golf?

There’s a section in my practice journal titled WOOD band-aids where I keep particularly helpful swing keys and fixes that I’ve discovered during play and practice, and there’s a reason for the acronym WOOD because it truly (Works Only One Day).  Success at golf, like any other sport, is based on mastering fundamentals and then making daily small scale adjustments.  I was reminded of this after my practice session today.  My progress with a swing change has been good over the last few weeks but it all fell apart on the range today and it seemed the new move had deserted me, as I stared at pull-hook after pull-hook.  I eventually found the WOOD band-aid and simply slowed my tempo down a hair and all was well again.  Bottom line:  it had nothing to do with my fundamental change but required one of those small adjustments.  I’m smart enough to know that today’s fix may not be good for tomorrow but I have confidence in my investment in the fundamental change because it will elevate my level of play over time.

To gain sustained improvement, build good fundamentals by seeking instruction from your PGA professional and working hard at mastering your lessons.  I’ve taken lessons with several professionals, and to this date, the most valuable remains the first, where the fundamentals were imparted.  The second set of eyes and knowledge a professional can provide are invaluable.  Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, practice and repetition will allow you to identify your faults and a small set of fixes to minimize the hills on the roller coaster ride.

Experts hawking “magic moves” in golf magazines and instructional videos are merely conveying swing keys that have worked for them after thousands of hours of practice.  You’re better off paying your local pro for a series of lessons then plunking down $400 for the newest driver and another $50 for a box of someone else’s WOOD band-aids.

Hit ’em straight!

5th major for the women – bad idea

The move by the LPGA Tour in 2013 to add the Evian Masters as a fifth major doesn’t make sense.  You can’t attach major status to a tournament just by adding prize money and calling it a major.  It’s clear they’re trying to generate interest in a product that’s suffering from a dearth of star power.  Last week’s Ladies U.S. Open was pretty much of a snoozer with a very unglamorous leader board.  The PGA Tour’s highest purse is paid for the Player’s Championship ($9,500,000) and it is still not regarded as a major, and try as some might to elevate, it will never gain major status, and it shouldn’t.  Too many majors water down the value of the current set.

The Solheim Cup is arguably the most compelling women’s event with the match play format generating genuine interest and passion.  Rather than add a fifth major with a largely unrecognizable field, the LPGA should consider an additional match play event pitting the United States against players outside of Europe, similar to the President’s Cup for the men.  The television audience would identify with all the best American players and get introduced to the growing number of talented Asian stars.

What’s on your reading list?

Top picks from my golf library:

Best swing instruction: Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons by Ben Hogan

Best on the mental game:  Putting Out of Your Mind by Dr. Bob Rotella

Best story:  Final Rounds by James Dobson

Best professional insights:  Tales from Q School by John Feinstein

Good old fashioned common sense:  Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book by Harvey Penick

Ouch! Sergio Garcia cards an 11 in the first round at Memphis

Just when you thought the guy was rounding into form he pulls this out of the bag.  After driving it 336 yards on the par – 5 third hole, he tried three times to hook a ball around a tree and carry a lake on a 216 yard approach.  Dumb!  I remember my last double digit hole; a 10 on a par – 5 at my local muni a couple of years ago.  That was full of dumb decisions and Sergio made the same mistake.  You simply cannot compound an initial error and need to know when to back off and take your medicine.  A professional tournament is rarely won on a single hole but can easily be lost on one.  Let’s see how this affects his attitude and performance in round 2.

Tiger Woods pulls out of the U.S. Open

So hobbling around in a walking boot apparently isn’t good preparation for a major.  This guy needs to be thinking about participation and making cuts before contemplating more major victories.  Tiger – Phase 1 is over and done.  Images of Tiger tooling around in a mini-cart like Casey Martin now come to mind and may come to fruition once the network suits figure out how much money they’re losing without Woods to anchor their telecasts.

Ernie Els – flatstick failures. Is he done?

Remember that silky smooth putting stroke that had Ernie in contention on the fastest greens in the toughest tournaments?  Well it’s gone, poof!  As of this writing, Els is ranked 185^th on the PGA Tour in putting from the critical 3-5’ range with an average of 73%.  Pros having top seasons like David Toms (93%) consistently excel in this scoring zone and it appears Els has completely lost it at age 41.  Compare the ball striking of the two and you’ll see both are comparable with Toms ranked 2^nd  on Tour in GIR at 72% and Els ranked 11th at 70%  But the true impact is felt when looking at stroke average with Toms, ranked 4^th  at 69.60, and Els at a whopping 159^th at 72.16!  What’s troubling for Els fans is when great ball strikers like Tom Watson and Johnny Miller lost their ability to make the short ones, they lost their ability to compete for good.  Is Ernie done?  Will we see him with a long putter before too long?  Place your bets.

Tiger – Gone from The Players!

To be honest, Tiger’s withdrawal is no surprise, however, the comments in his post round interview left me thinking that he overplayed the injury and simply quit because he was hacking so badly.  Mark O’Meara reported that he had played pre-tournament practice rounds with Tiger and Tiger’s knee seemed fine.  Frankly, I’m mystified as to how he could warm up before the round without issue and seriously re-injure himself on his first tee shot.  Is Tiger’s will to compete the same as it was when playing on a broken leg in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines where the injury seemed more serious than this one, or is it dependent on the quality of the shots he’s hitting?

Clearly Tiger is playing on an old 35 year body and his mental state is not even close to his former self.  You can lock up Nicklaus’ record for majors and throw away the key!