Golf Must be Wooed

Willie Park Jr, two time Open champion and golf course architect, once said, "Golf is a fickle game, and must be wooed to be won."  Never perhaps was it more true than Saturday at the Honda Classic.

Sergio and Adam Scott went out in the penultimate group and played terrific golf, feeding off one another.  Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker went out in the last group and couldn't buy a putt; or anything else for that matter.  It defies explanation.  At the end of the day, all you can say is, "That's golf."

How, in Rickie's case you can play two rounds of bogey-free golf around the Champion's course, successfully negotiating the Bear Trap, and then suddenly find yourself incapable of making a single birdie, is a mystery.  But it happens.  Golf cannot ever be subjected to your will.  You can't own the game, you can only woo it, and hope it shows you some love in return.

The night before, Rickie was about as confident as he could be about his game.  It was all systems go.  How does it happen?  In less than 24 hours you go from being a hero to a mug.  And, for all we know, he might still go out today and win the damned tournament.  He might, if he doesn't give up.  If he continues to try--if he continues to woo the game.

That's golf--a beautiful, but aloof, maiden.  She might one day smile at you, and let you know her charms.  But the next day she will inexplicably look the other way.  You can't force her.  You can only woo her.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

PGA National was indeed a bear yesterday at the Honda Classic, with the stroke average for the field at more than two shots over par.  Nevertheless, we were treated to the good, the bad, and the ugly as the players tried to negotiate the wind and avoid the water.

Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler played together and, for the most part, put on a fine exhibition of ball striking.  It was fun to watch, and the two obviously enjoyed being paired together.  Sergio had his ups and downs, holing out for an eagle, making birdies, and throwing in a few bogeys to share the lead with past champion, Michael Thompson, at five under.

Rickie was solid as a rock, playing a bogey-free round and coming in one shot back.  Had he not hit so many edges on the greens, he might have shot a fabulous round instead of just a really good one.  Fowler, of late, looks to be playing the best golf of the Fab Four, who haven't really been exactly all that fabulous for the past month or so.  He seems to be brimming with confidence, and ready to make the next step to Major champion, something much easier said than done with the number of talented players these days vying for the honour.

Rory, on the other hand, was just plain ugly.  Despite majestic driving, his iron game was spotty, his bunker play poor, and his putting atrocious as he carded a two over 72, missing a tiddler on the last hole to add insult to injury.  I have to admit that I agree with Brandel Chamblee.  Rory's infatuation with the gym has him following the same path Tiger took; and it certainly isn't doing much for his short game.  I find it rather telling that the latest Nike commercial with Rory shows him in the gym istead of hitting balls.  Maybe he'll prove us naysayers wrong and have a big year and an injury-free career from here on in, but lately his head just doesn't seem to be in the game.

It's early days, but if the wind keeps blowing, we might just see Sergio and Rickie battling it out for the title on Sunday.  Rickie looks really strong.  Sergio looks happy.  And we should be treated to some exciting golf.

Plane Spotting

Well, I guess it's that time again.  The old, Tiger Woods, will he or won't he, story.  Someone tweets that he's half-crippled, and can't even sit.  Tim Rosaforte and Notah Begay say he's making progress--whatever that means.  And, as usual, Tiger prefers to keep us guessing--if we're inclined to guess.

Tiger comes off his worse season ever.  During that season he came up with several interesting reasons for his poor play; the most notable being his glutes that just refused to fire.  However, during that entire season, he assured us he was fit.  He never once suggested that his back was troubling him.  

Then he undergoes surgery and we are left to wonder just what the truth really is.  The truth is; Tiger either doesn't want to tell us the truth, or he perhaps just wants to keep us guessing--and keep himself in the news in the process.  One thing for certain, openness and honesty is clearly not Tiger's strong suit.

Tiger was a great player.  Maybe he was the best we've ever seen.  But he hasn't won a Major in eight years.  Whether he can win another Major, or maybe another five or six, is anybody's guess.  But either way, he's had a great career.  However, in view of what we've witnessed in the last year or two from Spieth, McIlroy, Day, Bubba, and Fowler, is Tiger really relevant to the the discussion right now?

I can just see it now--Tiger's plane was spotted in Augusta.  Is he going to play the Masters?  I just can't stand the suspense!  Or can I?

Swing Thoughts

There are a number of popular books that teach a sort of Zen-like approach to golf.  You get yourself into a target-oriented zone and just let it happen unconsciously, trusting your brain to control your muscles.  It's a great concept, and occasionally I've even found myself in that lovely cocoon where all I saw was the target and I just swung the club without any conscious control.  Life is good when you get in that zone, and the game is almost easy.  But I've never been able to consciously make myself play unconsciously--if that makes any sense.

You aren't always able to play in the zone.  You aren't always able to just let the swing operate without conscious control--sometimes a great deal of conscious control.  Bobby Jones almost always relied on one or two swing thoughts to keep his swing under control.  They weren't always the same ones, but he relied on them to produce decent results when he might not be at his best.  He advised us not to believe that any of the pros played golf unconsciously.  He assured us that all the top players used swing thoughts.

The sweet-swinging Sam Snead used swing thoughts or triggers to keep his smooth, natural-looking swing in the proper groove.  Jack Nicklaus used them too.  We need them.  We can't just rely on the fact that our swing will stay in the groove.  We need to keep it there consciously by finding key swing thoughts that work.  In his book, Golf My Way, Jack wrote the following under the heading "How Many Swing Thoughts?":

  "The time to focus your mind on key swing thoughts is as you settle into your final address position.

  When my concentration is good I can focus my attention at address on five or six different things I want to do in the swing, and then actually do most of them.  For example, in the 1972 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where I was playing many left-to-right shots, at address on any particular shot I might simultaneously be thinking of making a specific type of forward press; keeping my head in a certain position on the backswing; keeping my hands low going back; making a very slow and deliberate takeaway; keeping the back of my left wrist to the target; making a full backswing; working my legs in a particular manner; keeping my head back during the forward swing.  When I am not concentrating well, however, I find I can focus attention at address on only one or two swing keys.

  How many you can focus on will depend on your levels of skill and concentration.  On average, I'd say that two is about the handicap golfer's limit, and that he'd be better off most of the time with only one key swing thought.

   I must stress, however, that no matter how many things you think about at address, you are, so to speak, merely programming the computer.  Once you throw the switch, the computer must take over.  The golf swing happens far too fast for you to consciously direct your muscles.  Frequently I can make very minor adjustments in midswing, but they are always instinctive, never conscious."

So, there you have it.  When he won at Pebble Beach in '72, Jack had a bunch of swing thoughts.  It's interesting that he felt the better he was concentrating, the more he could have.  Kind of flies in the face of the idea of playing golf subconsciously, doesn't it?  Oh, and notice that one of the key thoughts was keeping the back of his left hand to the target?  That's Top Hand Golf.

Five Minutes

Jackie Burke once said, "What you might learn in six months of practice, your pro can tell you in five minutes."  There is a lot of truth in that.  I mean, it's all well and good to dig it out of the dirt for yourself,  but there's much to be said for an experienced set of eyes.  It might just save you a lot of searching.

Everyone needs to develop a style or a reliable method to play the game well.  I learned to play the game imitating Jack Nicklaus, and my father-- who also tried to swing like Jack.  From an early age, I hit the ball high, and I hit it far.  I virtually never hooked the ball, but did hit some prodigious slices, followed by more than my fair share of pulls.  As I started shooting in the seventies, and occasionally lower, I became more aware of just how costly these big misses were, and started making changes to try to hit the ball more consistently. 

I became straighter, but I also started hitting the ball lower and with, if anything, a right to left flight, instead of the old fade.  My long, upright swing had become shorter, and flatter.  I basically changed my entire approach to the game when, as I look back, five minutes with a pro might have fixed me.  I now know that my problem was alignment, both shoulder and clubface alignment; and perhaps ball position.  If you are a reasonably good player, with a sound grip, chances are it is one of these fundamentals that is being neglected, or something quite minor that has slipped out of whack.  Rather than an overhaul, what I really needed was a tune up.

I miss those days when I hit it high, far, and left to right.  I don't know if I can ever find that old swing again.  Much has changed.  My back is prety much ruined--likely due to adopting that flat, rotary swing. My legs are much weaker since I've stopped playing soccer, rugby, and hockey.  But, if and when the snow melts, I'm going to try to go back for good to that old upright, Golf My Way swing.  I know I play my best when I swing more upright and keep the club in front of me, and make use of my legs.  I still sometimes find a semblance of that old swing, often after simple desperation has driven me to just hit the damned thing without thinking about it.  When this happens I still have some good results.  But I've been a confirmed tinkerer for much too long.  

My first and only golf instructional book was Golf My Way, by Jack Nicklaus.  Then I branched out and read Hogan's Modern Fundamentals of Golf, along with goodness knows how many other books.  Five minutes with a good pro might have saved me a great deal of time, energy, and disappointment.  But the beauty of this game is that, as long as you can still swing a club, there's hope.  But, it's also hard, if not downright impossible, to go back.  In fact, some people say you can never really go back.  So, instead I will have to just try to go forward.

Just How Good is Phil's Short Game?

Phil Mickelson certainly provided us with some drama again on Sunday at Pebble Beach.  After a miserable start to his round that had to have anyone who'd put a few quid on him to win shaking their heads, Phil birdied sixteen and seventeen, and suddenly we were starting to believe again.

All Phil needed was a birdie on eighteen to secure a playoff with Vaughn Taylor.  Did I just say "all Phil needed"?  Of course, a birdie on eighteen at Pebble Beach is no gimmee.  But Phil, after flirting with the tree on the right with his tee shot, played a nice second to the front edge of the green, leaving himself a pitch that the announcers felt he should get up and down about 75 percent of the time.  Gary McCord felt that, given ten tries, Phil should actuually hole the pitch twice.  It was not a tough up and down for someone with Phil's talent.

We all know what happened.  Phil hit a very average pitch, leaving himself about five feet, and missed the putt.  It happens.  It's called golf, because all the other four-letter words were taken.  And really, who could be unhappy to see Vaughn Taylor get the win?  I guess only the folks who lost money betting on Phil.

But this all got me thinking.  Everyone talks about what a fabulous shortgame Phil possesses.  So, just how good, statistically, is Phil's shortgame?  I decided to take a look at the official PGA tour stats for the past five years to see for myself.  In total scrambling from 2010 to 2015, Phil ranked 31st, 17th, 16th, 78th, 20th, and 84th.  In getting it up and down from less than 10 yards, Phil ranked 143rd, 72nd, 47th, 74th, 14th, and 140th.  His numbers from the sand are not particularly impressive either.

Phil does not possess the best shortgame.  He has an impressive repetoire.  He loves to hit fancy, spinning shots.  He loves to use his considerable imagination.  He's fun to watch, and he often hits magnificent shots.  He also manages, more often than he perhaps should, to look like a bum when he tries and fails to pull off a fancy shot when a simple shot would have sufficed.

Phil is the same with his long game.  He loves to hit the perfect shot.  He often hits risky shots.  The payoff is sometimes huge, but the downside is that he is sometimes forced to accept bitter defeat as a result of not playing a little more conservatively.  That is who Phil is.  He's a flashy player.  He loves to gamble.  He isn't called Phil the Thrill for nothing.  He is comfortable playing that way.  He can accept the bad with the good.  He will never change.  And I don't think anyone really wants him to change.  He just wouldn't be Phil. 

He's got himself a new swing instructor.  I'm not sure whether he still works with Dave Peltz on his short game, but I know Harvey Penick would have told Phil, "If you have to pick a flavour for your shots, make it plain, old, reliable vanilla."  Bobby Jones would have said pretty much the same thing.  

It's been a wild ride with Phil.  But, at 45, he's still got some fire in his belly and some swagger.  He may not have the most reliable short, or long, game, but when he's firing on all cylinders, he's still awfully impressive.

Phil's Back

Pebble Beach is a magnificent place.  For five hundred bucks, I'll likely never play it, but do hope to see it some day.  They say there's a muni just down the road that is wonderful to play instead for cheapskates like me.

Watching the Pro Am is, for me at least, a bit of a trying experience.  I really can't imagine that many golfers who really appreciate watching celebreties slash and hack their way around a golf course, even if it is beautiful.  I have it taped and just watched Justin Timberlake take about two minutes to hit a putt from the fringe.  He consulted with his caddie and even performed a squatting plumb bob before leaving the putt eight feet short.  This I don't really need to see. To add insult to injury, I had to listen to Gary McCord provide the narrative.

On the other hand, Phil is looking really good, and it would be great to see him get another win at Pebble.  And, where they are playing golf without the celebrities, on the Champions tour Bernhard Langer looks to add another win to his credit.  And at the Petoria Country Club in South Africa, Charl Schwarzel looks good to win as well on a really tricky course that is giving the pros fits.

I really like Langer, and I think Schwarzel has one of the best swings in the game.  I will be happy to see both of them win if they can finish it off.  As for Bernhard, unless he breaks a leg, it would seem to be almost unthinkable that he'll squander his commanding lead.  He's solid as a rock, and, with that unanchored broomstick putter, he's been absolute magic on the greens this week.

When I turned on the re-airing of the Pebble Beach Pro Am for my old mother to watch, she was also wondering why we had to watch all these celebrities.  

I said, "I know it's painful, but at least you can watch Phil."

As I walked out, I heard her mumble, "Piss on Phil."

She's never been a big fan of Lefty, but she really likes Bernhard Langer.  Oh well, we all have our favourites.  I didn't bother to tell her that Phil, with five Majors, is probably one of the best twenty players ever to play the game.  Her mind's made up, so I won't try to confuse her with facts.