Spieth Will Be the Best of the Big Three

After Rory's win at the Irish Open and Jordan Spieth's win at Colonial, we are suddenly back to being able to talk about the big three in the golf world.  

One interesting thing about young Mr Spieth, who is still my pick as the guy who will make the biggest mark in the game when his career is finished, is how often he's in the hunt.  They were comparing top five finishes by Spieth against those of Jason Day and Rory, and found that Spieth already has 26 of them and leads both of them despite the fact that he's really only getting started.  In fairness to Rory, who splits his time between the European and PGA tour, these stats are only dealing with PGA tour events.  Nevertheless, Spieth has proven to be in the top five more often than his rivals.

Day and McIlroy have more firepower.  They are capable of hitting shots Jordan simply can't.  Rory, when he's in the mood and has his putter working, is capable of absolute brilliance.  He might be the most naturally talented of the three.  However, he also makes silly mistakes, often failing to give every shot his full attention.  Day has become a golfing machine, with seemingly no weaknesses in his game.  When he's on song, he's clearly the best of the bunch.  He's the complete package of power, finesse, and mental strength.

But Jordan Spieth is the ultimate competitor.  He just seems to find a way to get the ball in the hole.  He also finds a way to get it done without great power, or consummate ball striking.  He just possesses that rare ability to know where to miss it and to make more than his fair share of putts when he needs them.  His swing, though perhaps not as technically perfect as his two main rivals, will stand the test of time.  My bet is that Day and Rory, like Tiger before them, will eventually wear themselves out and succumb to injury.  

Barring some unforeseen occurrence, I am betting that one day Jordan Spieth will be mentioned in the same breath as Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan.  He seems destined to become one of the best Texans to ever play the game--and goodness knows there were a lot of them.  I think there must be something in the water in Texas.  

Spiros the Sandbagger

I played a match with Spiros and Steve today.  Bill Stacey, son of Carl the Grumbler joined us.  Somehow I got stuck playing their best ball and giving them fourteen shots.

On the eighth hole, with them five up, I started doing some grumbling myself.  I was freely tossing around the word "sandbaggers," in reference to my opponents.  Bill then offered this worldly observation.  He said, "No matter who you are, or where you're from, nobody likes a sandbagger."

The boys beat me like a drum. I even tried a press on the last hole and Spiros the hammer made par and beat me again when I missed the four-footer to saw him off.  Nobody--and I mean nobody--likes a sandbagger.

The boys said they'll drop it to 10 strokes next time.  How nice of them.

Swing to Your Target

The cornerstone of Harvey Penick's teaching was "Take Dead Aim."  That, and "One Shot at a Time," are the most important things a golfer can learn.  

Sure, there are fundamentals that can help you hit the ball more consistently.  But for every fundamental, I can name a top golfer who didn't follow it.  There are many ways to swing a golf club, but unless that swing is directed at the target, it's not going to produce good results.  

I was reading George Knudson's book, The Natural Golf Swing.  What I think was most important in the teaching Knudsen provides is that you don't swing at the golf ball; you swing to the target.  As Knudsen, who was one of the best swingers of a golf club we've ever seen, pointed out, golf is a target game.  Like any target game, the focus of every shot has to be where, not how, you hit it.  

Anyone who has played golf for any length of time has hit a great shot.  They've chipped it in, or holed one from the fairway, or hit a wonderful recovery shot after finding themselves in jail.  Chances are, when they hit those shots, they were locked in on their target when they hit it.  I've got a bank of memories like that--like the six iron I hit over a towering tree to four feet ion the final hole in a scramble while playing with my father and his cronies.  We made birdie and won by a stroke.

As I remember those shots, I realize was really into the shot.  I took several looks at the target and really locked on it.  I actually "stared it down."  Raymond Floyd was famous for his stare.  When he was in the zone he stared his target down. His stare was intimidating to his opponents.  But he wasn't trying to be intimidating to them.  He was staring down his target.  He was determined to hit it where he was looking.  He wrote that his wife said she had occasionally seen him win without the stare, but she'd never seen him lose when he had it.

I don't know why I can't always lock on to the target--why sometimes I just hit it in the right general direction of the target instead of dead at it.  But we all go to sleep on shots; not giving them the attention they deserve.  Bobby Jones said he often found himself doing this during times of prosperity, when he was playing really well, or when he was driving into a wide fairway, or to a big green.  He had to always be on guard against letting up on the shots that looked easy.  He dealt with this by trying to hit the perfect shot--instead of hitting it in the fairway, hitting it dead center of the fairway.  Or instead of hitting it on the green, hitting it in the hole.

It's easy to lose your focus in golf.  People tend to think about all kinds of things as they are hitting their shot.  But where should your focus be, and what should you be thinking about as you swing the club?  The target, because golf is a target game.  As George Knudsen taught, "Swing to your target."

Good Putting Can Cover a Multitude of Sins

Once again, Jordan Spieth, despite fighting his swing and driving it all over the map, demonstrated the power of the putter in the third round of Lord Byron's tournament.  The putter can cover a multitude of sins as we saw Jordan have 11 one-putt greens.  

However, Koepka also made some terrific putts down the stretch to save pars and takes a two shot lead into the final round.  It's still anyone's tournament tomorrow.  But one has to think that Jordan will have to find a way to hit some fairways if he hopes to win.  The missed putt for par on 18 for Spieth proves that you can only ride a hot putter so long.  Eventually wild driving will catch you out.  

Meanwhile, Sergio lurks at three back.  His putting was nothing to write home about today.  But tomorrow could be another story.  It's nice to see Bud Cauley in the hunt as well, swinging great.  Tomorrow should provide plenty of excitement as Koepka looks to win for the second time, Sergio hopes to win another title at Mr. Nelson's event, Bud Cauley looks to secure his playing rights after coming back from shoulder surgery, and Jordan Spieth looks to quickly put the Masters behind him and work at catching Jason Day.

Spieth looks much more in control of his emotions.  Unfortunately, he is anything but in control of his driver.  The putter is a powerful weapon.  But it isn't going to save you every time.  Let's hope Jordan can find something before he tees it up tomorrow.  

A Go-To Club

I played with Ken today.  He informed me that he had recently played with nothing stronger than his six iron.  Ken had hurt his ribs and decided to use no more than a six iron to prevent any further injury while he recovers.  He played nine holes a few days earlier and shot, what for him was a respectable 46.  

It was decided that I would also use no more than a six iron and we set out to play a match with me giving him a stroke a hole (Ken has only recently started playing).   It was a lovely day, and after being permitted to play through a foursome on number four, we played in three hours.  

No balls were lost.  No time was spent in the woods or the deep fescue looking for errant tee shots.  It was very enjoyable.  In the end, Ken made a par three on the last hole to square the match.  Ken had a couple of disaster holes, struggled with his chipping, and still shot 101, which, for him, is pretty much the same score he has been making using all his clubs.  I shot 81 with nothing worse than bogey.  Neither of us played our best golf, but the round reinforced the fact that it is the short game that largely determines how well you score, and that there is a great deal of merit in putting the ball in play off the tee.

There were several unreachable par fours, but otherwise par was still a definite possibility if we chipped and putted well.  This round reinforced the truth of what Harvey Penick said.  The woods are full of long drivers, and a good putter is a match for anyone.  If you are struggling with your game, and are losing strokes off the tee, why not try using your six iron until you are hitting every fairway with it.

Once you can do that, try using your four iron or a hybrid off the tee until you can play a round without hitting that club in the woods.  You will learn that golf is easier, and much more enjoyable, from the short grass.  You will also find out just how much work your short game requires.  Harvey Penick wouldn't let his son in law use a wood for his first six months of playing the game.  He became a very strong player as a result.  

The fact is that most high handicappers lose the majority of their strokes off the tee and around the green.  Come to think of it, that's generally the case for all amateurs.  Ken now feels like his six iron is his "go-to" club; a club he can pull and feel confident about hitting a reasonably good shot.  It's great to have a go-to club.

Why Is It?

Why is it that the more tired and sore you get, the harder you swing?  I had one of those days yesterday.  

I woke up and went to work in the garden.  My wife and I are thinking of making a pitch for a reality show called "the crippled gardeners."  I don't know what possessed me, but I decided to make my backyard a bird sanctuary.  As a result, I dug two ponds and about a dozen garden beds.  I also planted trees and bushes.

The reward is a wonderful array of birds-- cardinals, blue jays, orioles, grosbeaks, finches, hummingbirds--not to mention squirrels, chipmunks, some rabbits under the hedge, bull frogs, and fish.  Though I stuck to perrennials, the plants multiply like crazy, tempting me to dig more gardens to accommodate them, and I spend half my life pulling grass and weeds.  I love it, but my back protests mightily.

After three hours in the garden, I had a brief rest, took some morphine and set off to play with Spiros.  I told my wife that I'd have cancelled if I wasn't booked as a twosome with Spiros.  It turned out that young Justin joined us, so I could have turned around and gone home.  I was stiff and sore, and the wind was up.  But I couldn't resist giving it a whirl.

As usual we played a match--me against their best ball.  It's fun to have a match.  It keeps you interested and, hopefully, motivated to play your best.  I try never to play without having a match, even though we don't bother putting any money on it.  It's strictly bragging rights.

Off the first tee I took a wicked swipe at the ball, almost falling on my arse in the process.  The result was a perfect draw to the hundred yard marker.  From there I took another lurch at it with a wedge, pulled the ball almost into the pond, left my chip eight feet short and missed the putt for par.  I was one down to Spiros' par.

The day continued with me making some of the most horrible swings off the tee.  In fact, they had no right to be called swings at all.  But somehow, I was scoring.  After nine, despite missing a three footer for par on nine, I was one over and two up.  Justin was playing about as well as I'd ever seen him play, but missed three short putts and was three over.

I three-putted for bogey on ten and then hit a terrible push almost into the trees on the right on eleven. My first thought was to just chip the ball to the 100 yard marker, but I decided instead to try to hit a fifty yard slice around the trees with a six iron.  I push sliced it into a tree and was lucky to have the ball drop down, stymied, but in a spot where I could get a club on it.  I was mad as hell at myself for trying such a dumb shot.

Not to be discouraged from any further stupidity, I stood over the shot and saw about a six inch gap through the trees to the flag.  As I set up to hit it, Spiros said to Justin, "I've got to take a look at this."  He wandered over to see what I was attempting to do.  I told him I was going to punch a seven iron through the gap in the branches.  But Spiros declared the shot to be impossible, since, as far as he was concerned, there was no gap.

To make what is becoming a long story short, I hit it through the gap to about 15 yards short of the green and got it up and down for bogey.  I birdied the next hole for a half with Justin and continued hacking and slashing my way home.  The interesting thing was, as bad as I was hitting it, I had a grim determination not to make a total mess of the round.  On the last hole, after hitting a crummy shot into the greenside bunker, I hit a nice shot to about four feet and made the putt for  a 77.  It was probably the best--or worst--77 I've ever shot; depending upon how you look at it.  

I was happy that I hadn't stopped grinding.  I even managed to beat the boys, two up.  Justin shot 41 on the back for 80.  His game is really coming along.  But I still don't understand why it is that the more tired and sore you get, the harder you swing.  Can anyone explain it?

Arnold Palmer on the Mental Approach

The saying, " it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game" really applies to golf.  Golf is one game where you have surprisingly little control over the outcome.  Sometimes you can seemingly do all the right things and nothing goes right.  Some days you just can't piddle a drop.  But how you respond to the bad times is very significant in your success as a golfer.

Consider what Arnold Palmer had to say in his book My Game and Yours:

    "When I walk up to the first tee on the first day of any tournament, the only thought in my head is to play every shot as well as I can, from beginning to end.  I keep in mind one of my father's sayings: 'If you don't birdie the first hole, you can't birdie them all.'

    I'm playing for that birdie on the first hole, and on the second and the third.  The thing is that I don't always get it: golf is that kind of game.  You are bound to have holes where nothing goes right, no matter how hard you try... You are bound to have days where nothing goes right on any of the eighteen holes.(I've shot as high as 86 in tournament play and Jack Nicklaus skied to an 83 in the 1981 British Open.)

    The trick when this happens is to stay serene.  The whole secret of mastering the game of golf--and this applies to the beginner as well as the pro--is to cultivate a mental approach to the game that will enable you to shrug off the bad shots, shrug off the bad days, keep patient and know in your heart that sooner or later you will be back on top...

    That's the great thing about golf.  If you can just keep your confidence, if you don't let the game get you down, sooner or later everything falls into place, and you have one of those rounds that you can remember with joy all the rest of your life...

    The mental approach that golf requires is a peculiar and complicated mixture of abiding confidence and patient resignation, of intense concentration and total relaxation.  It is not easy to explain--it is almost something that has to exist deep down in your unconscious mind..." 

I recognize this sort of serenity and abiding confidence in some of the better players in our area.  I've seen them play horribly and just shrug it off.  One of the top players at our club played with me in a qualifier and shot something like 91.  It was brutal.  I couldn't believe what I was witnessing.  But he never lost his cool.  

He has won several club championships and played competitively for years.  I'd be willing to bet he hadn't shot 91 in forty years or more.  He told me that he had been struggling for weeks, unable to break 80.  And yet he had just kept playing and kept his composure.  A couple of weeks later his buddies told me he had shot 68.  He missed shooting his age by a couple of months.  He was back on top of his game.  

Patience is indeed a virtue.  And perhaps nowhere is it more virtuous than in the game of golf.  The other virtue a good player must possess is the determination to just keep hitting it--to keep trying his hardest--no matter what happens.  The interesting thing is, a bad round doesn't really feel so bad if you know you tried your hardest.  I'm convinced--and, more importantly, Arnie is convinced--that if you stay patient and do your best on every shot, you will succeed at this game.

You may never win a Major.  But you will have many enjoyable and memorable rounds.  And that's what the game is all about.