Practising What I Preach

Occasionally, I find myself on the golf course actually practising what I preach.  Today was one of those days.  My blogsite is called Top Hand Golf.  It's called that because I have discovered in my studies of the teaching of many of golf's greatest players, and in my own game, that the top hand and arm rule the golf swing.  Or they should.

Today, playing with a very sore back and neck, I hit every shot focussing simply on taking the club back with my left hand and arm--I'm right-handed--and making sure that the back of my left hand went straight down the target line for two feet past the ball.  Despite medicre putting, I struck it well enough that I had a five footer to shoot another even par round today.  Of course I missed the putt.  But that's show business. I finished the round comfortably, having not hurt my back or neck on a single swing all day.

I also had the feeling all day that I was making only a three-quarter swing, and yet I was actually hitting the ball farther than usual.  Now I didn't invent the notion of a golf swing dominated by the top hand and arm.  It was a fundamental belief of Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Moe Norman....

Byron Nelson ended his career using only one swing thought.  Using it he set the one record, other than Bobby Jones' Grand Slam, that will never be broken; namely 11 wins in a row and 18 in a season.  It was the greatest prolonged stretch of golf ever played. What was Byron's swing thought?  The back of his left hand going down the line to his target.  

Bobby Jones taught that, for a right-handed player, the golf swing was a back-handed strike with the left hand.  Moe Norman's swing was left hand and arm driven.  The fact is, the majority of golf's best ballstrikers have controlled the swing and the strike with their left hand and arm.  It's simple and it works.

The crazy thing is that it is a very simple move to swing the club and strike the ball with your top hand.  Once you try it, you find the rest of your body moving quite freely to support the action.  The only question I have is why do I ever think about doing anything else?  Oh well; no one ever accused me of being smart.

Moe Norman

I received an e-mail from a new outfit purporting to teach Moe Norman's swing.  Moe was a ballstriking legend.  He was quite possibly an autistic savant, although never officially diagnosed as such.  He hit the ball dead-straight and shot his last 59 at 63 years of age.

The great thing about Moe was that he appeared to break just about every rule in the book when it came to the golf swing.  He used a ten-fingered grip, rather than the preferred Vardon or interlocking grips.  He set up with legs wide apart and ramrod stiff.  He had a short, quick action.  Essentially, if you saw him on the tee, particularly the way he dressed and stood to the ball, you'd think he was a weekend duffer.  But when he struck the ball it made a different sound.  Major champions would stop and watch him hit balls.

The thing is, Moe never recommended anyone copy his swing.  It was his ability to hit ball after ball right on the button, and to keep his clubface square and moving straight down the target line longer than anyone that made him arguably the greatest ballstriker we've ever seen.  His Canadian golfing feats are legendary.  Sadly, the PGA tour wasn't ready for Moe.  He dressed funny.  He talked funny.  He played fast and had little time for the staid slowpokes he met on the big tour.

I love the story about Moe actually laying on the ground pretending to nap while his partners went about their business.  One of the last straws was him putting out between a playing partner's legs as he was picking his ball out of the hole.  They essentially ran him off the tour.  They couldn't understand him.  And Moe just couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.  To him the game was simple.  He reduced hitting a golf ball to an act as simple as hammering a nail.   

A friend of mine got the chance to play with Moe in Belleville, Ontario--I think it was the Corby's tournament.  It was a shotgun start.  They were starting on a par three, had teed off, and Moe was nowhere to be seen.  Suddenly he appeared on the horizon, being driven to the tee at a high rate of knots by the club pro.  Moe jumped out of the cart and demanded, in his squeaky voice, to know the yardage.  After being told he stepped up the tee, threw a ball on the turf, took one look at the pin and hit the ball.  He holed it.  Moe happily chirped that this was something like his 34th hole in one.

It would be great to hit the ball like Moe.  In fact, it would be awesome to hit it like Moe.  The problem is, as I see it, even if you could duplicate his swing action, there is no guarantee you'd hit it anywhere near as well as Moe did.  Moe's action was uniquely developed for Moe.  On the other hand, we can dream.  I reckon I'll read about what this latest outfit has to say.  After all, whether you have ever heard of him or not, Moe was the man.

Get the Emphasis on the Right Syllable

Bobby Jones wrote about the golf swing despite the fact that his teacher, Stewart Maiden, never, in Bobby's recollection, ever discussed the golf swing.  Maiden was a no-nonsense Scot who believed that golf was about striking the ball, not swinging the club.  This was never lost on Bobby, even if he was persuaded to discuss the mechanics of the golf swing.

I am always amazed at Bobby's gift for getting to the crux of the matter, weeding out all the unnecessary minutae that many teachers find difficult to resist discussing when dealing with the golf swing.  In his book, Golf is my Game, Bobby began his chapter on the downswing with a very profound statement about the swing.  He wrote:

    "The swinging of the golf club back from the ball is undertaken for the sole purpose of getting the player to a proper position for striking.  So the one influence most likely to assure the satisfactory progression of the swing is the clearly visualized contact between club and ball still at the forefront of the player's mind.  Just as the backswing should not begin until this picture is adequately established, so the movement should continue until there results an awareness that the player has become capable of striking in the intended manner.

     I stress this point, and intend to continue to do so, because I know that the unrelenting effort to play golf in this way can do more for a player than anything else he can possibly do.  When every move of the swing is dominated by the determination to strike the ball in a definite fashion, the complicated sequence of movements must acquire purpose and unity attainable in no other way."

It always comes back to the strike--to impact.  There is room for much individuality in swinging the golf club.  When one considers all the great players and how different each of them swing the club, it is readily apparent that the issue with any player trying to succeed at this game is finding the easiest and most consistent and effective way for them to strike the ball in the required manner.  There are no points given for style.

That's perhaps why we see people with graceful, stylish swings who can't hold a candle to other players who swing like a caveman killing his lunch.  The only thing that really counts is the ability to strike the ball as it must be struck to produce the desired shot.  

Every golfer must ask himself whether his focus is on striking the ball, or swinging the club.  If he is thinking about swinging the club, he is approaching the game ass-backwards.  If he swings the club with the sole intention of striking the ball as it must be struck, chances are his swing will look after itself.  Scotiabank advertises that their customers are richer than they think.  Golfers, when they focus on the strike, are often more capable than they think.

The key is knowing what the clubface must be doing as it strikes the ball.  If you don't know what the clubface must do to produce a straight shot, a fade, a draw, a high shot, or low shot; your chances of producing that shot are seriously diminished.  

I was playing with a gal the other day who was really struggling.  She believed that there was something seriously wrong with her swing.  I suggested that she forget about her swing and just focus on hitting the back of the ball with the clubface moving down the target line.  She immediately started playing better, hitting some real beauties.  By thinking about striking the ball, instead of swinging the club, she got the emphasis on the right syllable.  She was in business.  

By the way, even as I write this, I am reminded of the fact that I'm just as guilty as the next guy of thinking about my swing plane, or my backswing, instead of how I want to strike the ball, as the next guy.  That's why it's so important to look to the guys like Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus--golfers who really figured it out--for the answers to this game.  It's a case of do as I say--or rather as Bobby Jones said--not as I do.

Most of us are quite capable of hitting a ball with a stick.  It's just when we worry about what our right knee or left arm is doing, instead of hitting the ball, that we get ourselves in trouble.  That Bobby Jones wasn't just a great player.  He was a heckuva teacher.  

Height

Watching the men play at that brute of a course this week, I was reminded of the importance of being able to hit the ball high and stop it quickly for top echelon players.  Length matters, but height is really important, especially on most championship courses in the States.

I was reading Jack Nicklaus' book, Golf My Way, and he felt that the ability to hit the ball high was his biggest advantage.  Someone had remarked that his advantage was being able to hit a six iron over a tree that most other players would need a nine iron to clear.  Jack remarked that his real advantage was being able to hit a one iron over a tree that most players needed a six iron to get over.  

At Bethpage Black, with all those front pins tucked over bunkers and fescue, and greens that ran away from you, you were in for a long day without a high, fast-stopping ball.  Jack would have loved it, with his long, straight driving and his long iron game.  

I'm starting to work on getting more height back in my game.  As for hitting a high one iron, I'll stick to a 22 degree six wood!  I couldn't hit a high one iron to save my life!

Cough Syrup

I've made a recent change with my swing, getting it more upright again like it was when I was a flat-belly.  The result has been a higher ball flight and the ability to hit the fade much easier.  I shot a nice even par round the other day using the more upright swing after having struggled for the past couple of weeks.  But today I found myself over-doing things. I seemed to get it in my head that if getting it more upright helped this much, then I'll get it really upright.  Eventually I started taking the club back way outside and was lifting it straight up, without properly turning my shoulders.  The result was, of course, a weak cut.

I got carried away, like a kid with a new toy, and started to try to hit everything high and left-to-right, even when the circumstances didn't call for it.  On one par three I tried to hit a high seven iron into the wind and finished twenty yards short and right of the green.  Annoyed, I then threw down another ball and hit a low draw, which was what the shot called for, and nearly holed it, ending up less than a foot from the hole.  The high fade is nice, but not into a headwind, or to a left pin.

I've also been working on my high, soft pitches, opening up my wedge and cutting across it.  I was doing really well with them and suddenly today I went crazy and wanted to hit a flop shot every time I missed the green.  I tried one on the last hole, leaving the ball woefully short of the pin.  I said to Levi, in disgust, "Why don't I just hit a regular shot?"  I threw down another ball, took one look, and knocked it in the hole with a normal pitch shot.  Levi just laughed.

Levi found himself doing the same thing.  He is working lately on hitting draws with his irons and twice today tried to draw the ball to a right pin guarded by a bunker.  Needless to say, he crashed and burned.  He was also like a kid with a new toy, wanting to draw everything; even when the shot called for his old fade.

We had fun today, but scored poorly because we were both getting just a little carried away.  It reminded me of what Bobby Jones had to say about making changes, or using swing thoughts, when we play.  He said, "One or two teaspoons of cough syrup will help you.  But the whole bottle might just kill you."  We all seem to have the tendency to eventually over-do a change until it goes from being a good thing to a problem.  Then the search begins again.

I know I've done a good thing lately by consciously swinging on a more upright plane.  I have had several people remark to me about how flat my swing had gotten.  And you do need input sometimes if you're not seeing your swing on video.  But now I need to remember not to go crazy.  It's good for me to get my swing back on a better plane.  I had really struggled getting the ball high, or hitting fades, and blamed it more on my back than the fact that I had somehow slipped into a making a very flat swing. It's great to hit the ball high and left-to-right again with ease.  But it's just as good to have that low draw when you need it as well.  I need to take one or two aspirins, not the whole damned bottle!  The same goes for Levi.  The draw is nice.  But it's sure nice to have the little fade as well.  

It's also nice to learn those little finesse shots around the green.  But the good, old bump and run often beats the Philly Mick flop shot.  Save the finesse shots for the times when a simple shot won't do.  

Open and Shut Approaches

I had Steve tell me he was confused by the article I wrote on "Choosing Your Method."  In it I wrote about Jack Nicklaus referring to the two principle methods of swinging the club.

In the "open-to-closed" method that Jack employed and was used by Vardon, Snead, Nelson, Jones, and most other great players, the club is taken away in one piece and the clubface gradually opens going back and closes on the downswing.  Jack felt that this was the easiest method to learn, the easiest on you physically, and the method that would allow you to play well the longest.  

The other method is what Jack called the "closed-to-open" method where the clubface is held closed, or facing the ball on the way back and held open on the way through.  It was employed by Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer in his early days.  Bobby Jones called it the "shut-faced" method that was best employed by Leo Diegel in his day.  The "closed-to-open" method, according to Jack, required greater strength.  

I have tried both methods and have found that I have difficulty hitting a fade with the "shut-faced" method.  I also tend to hit the ball lower and predominantly with a draw with the closed-to-open method.  I am either no longer strong enough, or quick enough with my legs to hit my favoured fade with the shut-faced swing.

Jack preferred his method, but admitted that he sometimes used the shut-faced method, presumably when he was playing a hook or a draw.  Both methods have been, and still are, used successfully.  But Jack believes that history has favoured his method.  A good modern example of the open-to-closed method might be Henrik Stenson.  A top echelon shut-faced player would be Zach Johnson.

In the end, as Jack was sure to point out, the only thing that mattered was getting impact right.  He just felt his way was easier for most people to employ.  I hope that makes it a little more clear.  I guess what would work better is a video.  Sometimes words just don't effectively get the point across.  However, I have included the drawing on the subject from Jack's book, Golf My Way.

Bogeys Won't Hurt You

Spiros and I got out early today.  We golf almost exclusively in the afternoons, so it was a different experience with the dew and the freshly cut greens.  Normally my body doesn't react well to early morning play, but for some reason my back and neck felt pretty good.

It was a shotgun start, so we started on nine.  Nine, ten and eleven is Picton's Amen Corner.  Many groups pay anyone in their group who can get through it in even par.  It's definitely the hardest stretch on the course, and is probably easier if you have eight holes under your belt before you face it.

I started on nine with a pushed tee shot that rattled around in the trees and made an opening bogey.  Spiros made par.  We both ended up one over through Amen Corner and at least had the luxury of knowing we'd faced the real meat of the course without having done too much damage.

In the end, I was even par for the day and Spiros had the chance to break 80 for the first time in years. But for a duffed chip on the second last hole, Spiros might have been in the seventies.  The inevitable "ifs" were discussed.  If only he hadn't three putted from twenty feet on two, if only he hadn't hit three crummy chips, if...  Of course, the reality is ifs are a waste of time.  As the saying goes, "If your aunt had had nuts she'd have been your uncle."  

Ifs work both ways.  If I hadn't chipped in for birdie on three and holed a thirty footer for birdie on eight, I wouldn't have shot even par.  In fact, I had to hole a six footer for par on the last hole.  Raymond Floyd called the six foot putt the most important shot in golf.  You need to make a lot of them to score well.  Those are the good ifs.  I think it's better to remember the good bounces rather than the ones that got away.  We both played well for us.  It could have been better and it could have been worse.  But the important thing was that a couple of old, worn-out soccer players were out there still walking the course and enjoying the game.

I've found that the secret to scoring is not necessarily doing anything spectacular: you just have to keep it in play and avoid the big numbers.  In fact, as we headed out today I told Spiros I just wanted to make nothing worse than bogey, since I have been making too many big numbers lately.  I succeeded and made a decent score as a result.  Spiros only made one double bogey, which is an improvement for him.  Bogeys won't really hurt you; it's those dreaded others that really ruin a good round.