DATE: 05/23/2007 20:07:15 / MOOD: like playing 36 holes

During my recent recovery from knee surgery, I had some hours to expend just sitting on the grass and observing people coming to the driving range at my challenging home course. While my previous impressions that practically no high handicap golfers had a useful pre-round practice routine was pretty cynical, I had no idea how correct I had been. Watching them by the dozens only confirmed how counterproductive was their approach to a round of golf.

Here is a typical golfer: He drags a bag full of very expensive clubs down to the range. Without even a stretch, with an eager, almost vicious gleam in his eye, he whips the driver out of the bag. Teeing up a ball, he takes a wicked lunge at the ball, often either barely catching a bit of the ball on the toe or slipping under it, wearing out the top of the club as he hits weak popups or little toe shanks. After a couple of these, he is really getting tense. Muscles and eyes bulging, he winds up as far as he can, losing his weight all the way outside his right shoe and takes a "Mighty Casey" swing almost falling over backward.

Does he collect himself and decide that this is not the way to begin? Does he put the driver away and get out a wedge or 9-iron? Not only no, but HELL NO! REAL MEN HIT DRIVERS.

Now really determined to smash the snot out of that mean little sphere, he grinds his feet into the ground and takes another series of wallops. Lordy be, about his 15th shot is dead center, hit well. Grunting with satisfaction, he hits another twenty drives, splattering them all over the range, grabs his bag and heads for the first tee.

Now, it should be noted that on this golf course, even a modestly long hitter needs not drag his driver out of his bag but twice, and that only on the seventh and 18th holes. In fact, if he were to hit a few of those awful blasts left or right, he will just have to tee up another ball, or get a serious case of Poison Sumac from uselessly chasing balls out into the woods.

So, what is a good pre-round technique? First of all, you must get into the frame of mind of what it is you are trying to do. You are first of all, trying to develop a relaxed rhythm. You are also trying to discover what the shape of your shots might be for that day. They do vary, you know. Lastly, the shot you complete your practice session with should be the shot you want on the first tee. It is very important that you get your round off to a nice, safe start. I will begin my own practice session with three or four pitching wedge shots, starting with just half shots. Then I will skip through my bag, odd clubs one session, even clubs the next. I will hit three or four drivers but, on this course, a four-iron off the tee is my shot, I will make sure I have this club grooved. Depending on the time factor, I will either putt before or after my full shots but I always putt. I start with 30-footers to get the feel of the green that day then get down to four-footers and make certain I can make a confident stroke that "pops" those shots into the hole.

I will stop by the bunker on the way to the first hole and hit four or five sand shots and I am ready to go. That's what works for me.

I know no golfing professional that goes straight to the range and yanks out his longest club to start. Take a lesson from these bozos. Make a reasoned start to your round and see if those scores don't plummet. More importantly, you will feel better about yourself when you coolly whip that first shot right down the heart of the fairway.

That's Thoughtful Golf.

(c) Copyright Sandy Bunker, 2007

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DATE: 05/03/2007 21:01:45 / MOOD: like playing 36 holes

BALANCE is so important to your golf game that I have overstated its font size and capitalized it to lure your attention. You will be richly rewarded if you master this article!

I mention the subject because I see multitudes who lack stability in their swing, who fall as though wounded, even with their putting stroke, and who then blame everything but their lack of equilibrium for some awful result. Further, balance means more than not falling down. It means having your eyeballs suspended in space in a tiny enclosure that moves not at all backward or forward, up or down. Your eyes can only turn within a large coffee can sized area but the "can" cannot move. It is analogous to your body turning within a barrel. If you were a raw beginner and we were just giving you your first lesson, it would be on the putting green. There we would impress on you the importance of the "still" head. We would have you putt four-foot putts until there was no tendency of your head and shoulders to slide forward, the cause of even most veteran golfers missing short putts! We would impress on you how vital it is to keep the ball crisp and clear in your vision, without any sense of movement until the clubhead has struck. We would teach you to focus on a blade of grass just behind the ball, never raising your head or moving your eyes off that spot until you hear the "clunk" of the ball in the hole.

Once we were satisfied that you understood that concept, we would begin hitting short pitch shots using similar principles. Over a period of several lessons, badly testing your patience, we would finally arrive at hitting full shots on the range. However, by then you would be quantum leaps beyond those who learn by whacking balls.

What you would discover with all this dull practice is that you would be unable to master this simplest of drills unless your whole body was in perfect balance: Forward and backward, front to back, up and down. I have never read nor have I seen any professional golf teaching that focuses enough on this subject. That is amazing when you consider that the tiniest movement up, down, left, right, forward or back moves the impact position of the ball on the clubface off the sweet spot. Worse, the club may even strike the ground before the ball with a dipping motion of only ½ inch! The dreaded "shank" (wherein the ball strikes the hosel of the club and squirts rightward causing you to vomit) can result from sliding the body forward only an inch! Not even perceptible to the victim.

So, whether you are a veteran player or the rawest beginner, give BALANCE its proper place in your hierarchy of learning. This, combined with correct use of your eyes will pay huge dividends in every aspect of your game.

One absolutely essential part of every pre-swing routine should be to swing through to a finished, balanced position and hold it for a few slow seconds. That is where you must end up at the end of your shot. If you cannot even do that with your practice swing, you must embark NOW on a program to learn poise.

You can practice feeling springy and owning self-awareness of where your weight distribution is no matter what you are doing. A great aid to good balance is strong legs. Exercise, such as bicycling, will go a long way to helping, especially late in a round on a hot summer day when ones legs tend to become weak and leaden. That is when you see so many players falling back on their right side, dipping and hitting the ground and swaying on putts.

I realize this advice doesn't rank in sexiness with how to hit long bunker shots or 300 yard drives but even that will be helped if you improve your strength and balance. Remember that balance in motion gives grace to your swing . That's how Thoughtful Golf really works and it is fun.

(c) Copyright 2007, Sandy Bunker 

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DATE: 04/26/2007 14:40:28 / MOOD: like playing 36 holes

From time-time I will try to highlight rules that are often misused, confused or violated by amateurs. The "unplayable lie" is a prime example. Let’s start from rule 28 and work back. If you violate this rule in stroke play it costs you TWO strokes. In match play you lose the hole. Tough penalty, so it behooves you to understand it. Who decides the ball is unplayable? Only one person makes this decision…you. There are no criteria except what you decide fits your game, your ability and the situation. That obviously means that what is unplayable to one player is not to another. It’s your choice and it only costs you one stroke to exercise this privilege. It is the better part of valor to use this rule in many instances. For example, let’s say your ball has come to rest between two tree roots. You feel you cannot safely make a stroke without either endangering the health of your hands or that the ball may take an untoward hop into deeper trouble. Further, even getting it out would not advance it toward the hole. Two clublengths away is fairway and a clean lie with 150 yards to the pin. You take your drop in a perfectly safe area and you’ve still got a chance to get up and down. Now that you have decided to take an "unplayable lie" penalty, what are your options? And note that you get to clean your ball before dropping.

 

1. Play the stroke as nearly as possible from where you played the last stroke. This is the classic "stroke and distance" penalty.

 

2. Drop the ball behind the point at which the ball has come to rest, keeping that place between you and the flagstick. You may go back as far as you
wish.

 

3. Drop the ball two clublengths either way, no nearer the hole. Oneexception, if you are in a bunker, you cannot drop it out. Nice try, Charlie.

 

As you can see, you have many good options under this rule. The central thought in making this decision is, "with my best shot, can I reach the green without taking a drop?" That question comes up in many situations in golf but is vital here. If the answer is "no," be smart and get yourself in a position where you will only lose the single shot you would have sacrificed anyway. Always remember to play golf to get yourself in the best obtainable situation to play your next shot. That’s Thoughtful Golf.

 

(c) Sandy Bunker, 2007

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DATE: 03/26/2007 21:19:36 / MOOD: like playing 36 holes

Here is a simple little drill that will work wonders with your short game. No fancy equipment is needed, in fact you have all the stuff you need right in your golf bag. In fact, it includes your golf bag!

The idea of this drill goes back to Sandy’s chipping fundamentals. Let’s review them. But, first the key idea of successful chipping.

Get the ball safely on the green as soon as possible with enough "run" to reach the hole. In other words, you don’t want to fly the ball too far onto the green with all the vagaries of feel that would take.

My first principle: Have only one stroke. Change clubs to vary distance. For example, If you are close to the green and close to the flagstick, you might hit a sand wedge. If you were close to the green, but far from the flagstick, you might hit a 7-iron or more.

There is no set formula. You have to experiment with your own swing, the weight and loft of your clubs, etc. It is like tuning up a musical instrument.

The other four principles are these:

1. Choke the club down nearly to the “metal” (or graphite).
2. Keep your weight leftward and back toward your heels.
3. During the stroke, do not let the clubhead pass your hands before your hands have passed your chin.
4. Minimize your body movement. Keep your head very still in space, both horizontally as well as vertically.

The drill I like is where I take my bag, as in the photo, put down some balls about two yards from it, and put a towel where I want the balls to land. Then I practice the single stroke I want, changing clubs when I want to hit to different targets.

I try to hit the shots to just skim over the bag to achieve the idea of landing consistently and not manipulating the speed of the swing to achieve different distances.

This drill can be practiced right in your back lawn, at the local high school or park. Just learning to control the tempo and range of the swing to go from the pile of balls you see in the photo to the towel just beyond will work wonders for your short game.

Remember that 70% of the golf game is played under 100 yards. Make this important part of the game your strength to cut those removable ugly strokes off your handicap.

(c) Sandy Bunker, 2007

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DATE: 03/22/2007 21:58:35 / MOOD: like playing 36 holes

In Covey’s Seven Habits Training there is a wonderful paradigm that couldn’t apply better to golf practice if he had intended it just for that purpose.

It is about a man heading for a place in Detroit but he has a map of Chicago. No matter how sincerely he travels, how hard he tries, as long as he follows the wrong map he can only arrive somewhere other than his intended goal.

Motivation to practice varies like the fall leaves. I love practice, my wife hates it. Many golfers practice intensely and their failure is in direct proportion to their effort. How awful. Then there is the duffer who claims to never practice at all. "Oh well, I never practice so what do I care if I don’t do well?"

If you are like that liar, skip off and read something else.

I was on the range recently and observed a guy next to me who was obviously a beginner. He was a big strong dude and he was squeezing the glue out of his grips, slamming balls everywhere. The worse the shots the harder he swung. At some point he took a rest and watched me hit balls. I was in a nice groove hitting middle irons nicely with what he took to be an effortless swing. He struck up a conversation and one thing led to another. I looked at his clubs and found they were a ladies set with slick, hard old rubber grips. He was given them by a "friend" who suggested he play with them for a while until he got good enough to get good clubs. He was headed for Detroit with a map of Tokyo.

The whole idea of practice is to approach one’s potential for golf success. Many people are internally motivated and can design and follow a pretty fair, balanced practice schedule. Others are flabby-willed and need prodding. Both have the desire to succeed and absent that, why bother?

Here are some tips for keeping a sustained, guided, clear motivation over a long period of golf practice. This assumes you have clubs that fit!

Set realistic short and long-term goals.

1. Be specific. For example, after analyzing your game you decide that putting is hurting you, and here I shudder to suggest this, practice putting. Slamming balls for two hours with your driver will not, I repeat not, help putting.
2. Set goals you can measure. Fortunately, in golf this is easy. Everything is subject to numerical expression. Count putts, fairways hit, greens hit, sand saves. Let the numbers drive your practice.
3. Practice mentally. Imagery of your game is an essential element.
4. "See" yourself performing whatever shot you imagine. If possible, videotape your swing and look at it with an expert. What you feel may not be at all what you are doing. In fact, the longer you have played, the more this will probably be true. Self-delusion is the rule.
5. Good professionals go through a process like the following before each shot:

Relax. Imagine the shot. See the ball fly and land. Make the shot. Review the shot. Out of these five items only one is physical.

Long term goals include an upcoming tournament, or watching the development of your handicap. In other words, have a reason to practice beyond the general need to "do better."

Lastly, the sworn enemy of motivation is despair. That is usually bred of setting unrealistic goals. Keep your goals reachable, practice toward those goals and watch your motivation improve.

Sandy Bunker (c) 2007

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DATE: 03/22/2007 21:57:58 / MOOD: like playing 36 holes

Here we are about to enter, not just a new year, but a new millennium. I call it, Y-MM. Starting a huge new piece of time like the next 1,000 years calls for a huge new strategy for most of us. This piece is about golf, and playing successful golf is about reducing the number of times you stand over a shot in a round of golf.

Let’s try some new thoughts. For example, when you first arrive at the practice tee, all eager to try out that new $400.00 Titanium driver your well-meaning spouse bought you for Xmas, start out with short, unforced wedge shots. Hit them to targets as small as other golf balls. Know why? Because this millennium you are going to try to hole out every single consarned, dad-blamed shot inside 100 yards that you attempt! The object of golf is to get the ball in the hole. You are going to keep that uppermost in your mind.

I like to take my sand wedge and do two things to start out. First, try to have a goose-grease slick, smooth rhythm. I want to feel that club just float to the top of my backswing and start to fall before I add anything to the shot. Second, I keep shifting my aim so I don’t just blindly keep whacking balls. I will aim one about 80 yards down the left side of the range, see where the ball ends up, then do the same in front of me and to the right. Then I will shift back and try to hit the first ball with my next shot, shift to the center, and so on. It is amazing that when you aim at such a small target your shot pattern gets tighter.

Then I will work my way up through the bag trying to maintain that rhythm. The next to last club I hit is my driver. I do my standard driver stuff, trying to fade a ball, draw a ball and make sure I hit to a target. The last shot I take is the first shot I will face in my round. It may, or may not, be a driver.

Oh, did I mention that BEFORE going to the practice tee I hit some putts? I make certain I have a consistent setup pattern, a slow rhythm and clear target visualization?

I would only vary this routine if I had some special problem. Perhaps my sand play was suspect, or short chips or pitches. In that case, I would work on those also, if I had time. However those shots are best left to days when you only practice and not play. That is because there must be time and an open mind to experimentation with these creative shots.

I can’t guarantee anyone that he/she will quickly improve his/her game by these methods but I would bet that over time it will work better than most of the hit-and-miss techniques I have witnessed.

(c) Sandy Bunker

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DATE: 03/22/2007 21:57:29 / MOOD: like playing 36 holes

There you stand, lines of pain etching your kisser. You have just shanked your third ball of the day, dead right into the blackberry bushes. Not only that but you nearly threw up on the previous green when you stabbed a two-footer by the hole, not even catching an edge.

Worse, every bounce, deflection and lie chooses the least favorable place to be. Murphy's Law applies to every shot. Whatever can go wrong does. It's been like that for a month. Doubts plague yourself, your game, your sanity. You consider getting a DNA check. Maybe it's something hereditary, some awful disease that will soon cause your bones to rot. You start to understand how Greg Norman felt on the back nine at Augusta this year.

You practice more and harder and read every golf tip you can find. You listen with rabbit ears to every piece of advice by every loudmouthed know-it-all on the driving range. You eagerly consider tips that 20 handicap duffers are giving their 36 handicap wives.

You only get worse. What to do?

Sometimes it's like being caught in a giant spider web. The harder you struggle, the tighter the strands become, the worse your predicament. The spider is coming to eat you. What are your alternatives?

1.Take a two-week break from golf then sell your clubs and go fishing.

2.Buy new clubs. That's always a solution and always works for a little while. At least buy a new driver, preferably titanium or whizbangium or whatever is the most hyped thing on the market.

3.Get those old clubs out of the garage. Standard length persimmon woods, old steel-shafted irons and change putters. Be careful, with this approach. You will be really ticked-off at yourself for having spent a thousand bucks on those over-sized, graphite shafted irons you saw advertised on TV. You will probably hit the ball as straight and long with your old sticks as you were doing when your game went South using the new super-fandangled hi-tech goodies you mortgaged your house for.

4.Take a lesson or go to a golf school. This never works. You will go to the range with the pro and he will ask you to hit a six-iron. You will just kill the ball right through the same hole in the sky time after time. "What problem were you having?" He will ask. You will feel like a dope. You will be broker than you were after buying another set of clubs.

There is another course of action. First, you may be playing too much. You may not be playing with the right balance of competition. Conventional wisdom says you should divide your playing into thirds. Play a third with better, a third with equal and a third with inferior players. Check your own recent playing history and adjust accordingly.

Another suggestion is to spend some time working on nothing but your short game. Emphasize good rhythm and balance and holding your head still. Keep a clear visual picture of the ball, the spot you want to strike on the green and the imagined roll of the ball.

Dwell on past successes. Remember clearly specific great shots you have made, long putts you have dropped and low scores you have shot.

Above all remember the old admonition: "Don't despair when you play badly because you will play well again. Don't get overjoyed when you play well because you will play badly again." That's golf.

If you want to consult a professional be sure that you understand what problems you are trying to solve. That may involve analysis of your most general statistics. Greens in regulation, putting percentage, sand saves, fairways hit. Is there a predominate shape to your shots? Do you usually draw or fade the ball? What has changed from when you played well?

Lastly, make sure something has not happened to your equipment. Forged irons, in particular, tend to change loft as well as lie. Is there a club or two that suddenly is not working? Perhaps there has been a few degrees change in the club. This can happen easily by just hitting a root in the rough.

What I hope all this stuff has brought to your attention is that the complexities of figuring out where your game may be leaking oil or losing voltage is not always simple. Often, unlike a clunky automobile, golf games may be self-curing. Time may be all you need. Take a short break and just resume playing, allowing time to heal.

There are many more ways to approach the pain of poor play but this list may give you a starting point.

(c) Sandy Bunker

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