Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word for Pettersen

My wife and I watched the Suzann Pettersen interview this evening.  We both had a hard time concluding, based upon what she had to say, or the way in which she said it, that she was, in fact, contrite and truly remorseful for her unsportsmanlike behaviour.

I think Laura Davies comments, along with the angry response from Annika Sorenstam at the time of the incident, says it all.  Those two icons of the women's game,who both hail from Europe, were disgusted with what happened, and that alone should tell you everything you need to know about it.

While the talking heads might still want to have Alison Lee share the blame for the incident because she picked up the ball, the fact remains the no one, with a proper regard for the integrity and etiquette of the game, would have acted as Pettersen did.

If the interview was an attempt by Pettersen to put this behind her, in my opinion, she failed miserably.  She did pay lip service to the fact that golf is not a "win at all cost" game.  But does she truly understand it.  Golf's greatest champions--Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorenstam, Nancy Lopez--would have never, for an instant, considered trying to win a match that way.  They would have had too much respect for the game and for their fellow competitor.

If Suzann is sorry about anything, I suspect it is only that this whole thing back-fired on her and her team.  It's a shame that she could not have been a bit more contrite and showed a bit more humility in the interview.  It certainly didn't strike me as an effort to publicly reaffirm what she had previously written. 

Trouble Shots

I don't know about everyone else, but I really enjoy getting myself in a predicament on the golf course. When I'm stuck behind, or under, a tree, or my ball is in a divot, or plugged in a bunker, I kind of get excited.  

That may sound a bit strange, but those unusual situations are the ones that really make the game interesting.  Those situations force you to think.  They test your skill, and your mettle.  No one wants too many of those trouble shots, but golf would surely be a lot less interesting without them.  

Many of my most memorable shots are ones where I was, for all intents and purposes, well and truly in jail.  Making the great escape by being able to use imagination and a bit of skill made me feel, at least at the time, like a real golfer.

I was thinking today about a Quinte Cup match a few years ago at our club.  I was all square heading to the last hole.  It's a par three with the lake, and OB stakes on the right.  On the left is a hillock in front and a bunker alongside the green.  Behind the green is a hill where, in events like this, the crowd can sit and watch, along with those gathered on the clubhouse deck.  

I pulled my tee shot long and left, halfway up the hill and under a tree.  It appeared that I was dead, and my opponent was surely feeling pretty confident, having hit the green with his tee shot.  The murmurs in the crowd left me no doubt that they thought my goose was cooked as well.  After some consideration, I realized my only option was to play a six iron away from the pin, through the bunker, and hopefully onto the green leaving myself, at best, a lengthy putt.  Sure enough, the ball scooted through the bunker and ended up about thirty feet from the hole, leaving me a downill left to right breaking putt.  

I made the putt and remained all square.  I enjoyed the applause from the crowd, but I was much more satisfied with the fact that I had used my imagination, and a great deal of determination, to secure the half when no one would have given me a chance.  Those are the shots, and putts, I think you need to remember.  Not because it took great skill to do it.  It just took some imagination, determination, and perhaps, a bit of luck.

Spiros played a match with me one time and actually hit an almost-fully submerged ball out of the edge of the pond on number ten to save a par.  That was years ago now, but we still laugh about it.  It was an alternate shot match and his partner thought he was crazy, wading into the water to play that shot.  But, it's amazing what can be accomplished in this game if you really put your mind to it and don't give up.

And who is the best in the game right now at getting it up and down from anywhere?  I think you'd have to give the nod to Jordan Spieth.  He wins because he's not only talented, he tries the hardest. There's a lot to be said for not giving up in this game.  Bobby Jones not only felt he won because he tried harder than everyone else, he also said the best advice he ever received was from Harry Vardon.  Vardon said, "No matter what happens, just keep hitting it."  

I love those trouble shots.  Don't you?

The Power Game

I just read another article on the supposedly huge advantage the long hitter enjoys in the game of golf.  Somehow, many golfers never seem to figure out the fact that, as Harvey Penick said, "The woods are full of long drivers."

This past week we saw Henrik Stenson lead the Tour Championship for two days giving up thirty yards off the tee to use his magic three wood which kept him in the fairway.  It turned into a two horse race between Stenson and Spieth, an average length player who ground out the win, despite some shaky ball striking, with his short game and a hot putter.  

Power is obviously an advantage in this game.  But only if that power comes with control and a good short game.  If power, or distance, was the most important part of the game, Bubba and DJ would be winning all the Majors.  This year, we saw Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson, both average length hitters, win the first three Majors.  Only Jason Day prevailed in a Major using power and finesse to beat Spieth at the PGA.  Without a hot putter, Day would have never beaten Spieth.

Jordan Spieth is great for the game.  He is helping to prove the old adage, you drive for show and putt for dough.  An average length driver, Spieth was in the hunt at every Major, won twenty two million dollars and five tournaments...  I think it's time to realize that golf is about managing your game and getting the ball in the hole in the fewest possible strokes.  For most amateurs, that would probably mean, not getting longer off the tee, but developing a solid short game.  

Jordan Spieth: The Power of the Putter

Once again, Jordan Spieth has risen to the the top of the golfing world riding his putter.  The last two days gave us another lesson about the fact that putting trumps all.  Pitted against the best ball striker in the game, Spieth, who was not at his best ball striking, broke Stenson's heart by making putt after putt.

It could be argued that Stenson should have reverted to using his driver a bit more often in those soggy conditions.  He was playing to his strength by finding fairways and relying on his superb long iron game, and it paid off the first two days.  But, in the end, it was the putter that prevailed.  When Spieth made that forty five footer after Stenson had hit it stone dead--was it on eleven?--Stenson had to smile and give Spieth a fist bump.  He surely knew it was over.  You just can't compete with that sort of brilliance on the greens.

When we think of the great players, in the end it always comes down to their ability to make putts.  Jack Nicklaus seemed to be able to will the ball in the hole.  When Tiger was so dominant, he was unbelievable on the greens.  He seemed to never miss a six footer.  Now, he misses lots of them.

Raymond Floyd said the most important shot in golf is the six foot putt.  I should know, because I keep missing them.  With Spieth it's the fifteen to twenty foot range where he keeps breaking hearts and nerve out there.  When he missed those two cuts, he was missing putts.  But, he's back in business now.

We have the pleasure of watching four young guns at the top of the game right now in Spieth, Day, McIlroy, and Fowler.  They are all different.  Day presents as the most complete package with his power, ball striking, and short game.  McIlroy has some issues with his short irons and his putting, but will likely figure it out.  Fowler has a swing that will surely last forever, and he's got a great pair of hands.  When the putts are dropping, he can run with anyone.  But Spieth?  He's got the mind, and he's got that putter.  

When push comes to shove, it always comes down to the five and a half inches between your ears and the flat stick.  It's a joy to hit great golf shots, but it's the guy who can make the putts that wins the cash.

What Should You Concentrate On?

Concentration, or the ability to concentrate, is vital in playing good golf.  We know this to be true.  But the question is, what do we concentrate on?  Bobby Jones devoted a chapter of his book, Bobby Jones on Golf, to the subject.  What he wrote concerning concentration is, I think, quite enlightening.

Bobby was once asked whether there was any one thing that he thought about that enabled him to keep hitting the ball well.  He wrote:

"I replied that when I was hitting the ball well, there was always one or two things I made certain of doing, and the doing of them would assure success for awhile.  But they were not always the same things.  One conception was good for only a limited time, and when the charm wore off, I would begin looking for something else...This is something the theorists and analysts overlook when they are not themselves reasonably capable players.  It is of great value to have a clear understanding of the successive movements making up a correct golf swing; this much is needed in order to enable one to recognize and correct faults as they appear.  But no human is able to think through and at the same time execute the entire sequence of correct movements.  The player himself must seek for a conception, or fix upon one or two movements concentration upon will enable him to hit the ball.  Then when this wears out, because perhaps he begins to exaggerate or overemphasize it to the detriment of something else, the search must begin anew for another idea that will work.  In this process, there inevitably are alterations in the swing, not in fundamentals of course, nor of radical proportions, but more than can be accounted for in any series of diagrams."

So, Bobby Jones helps dispel the notion that all good players can simply stand up to the ball, take aim and fire, without the need to think about their swing.  All swings can, and sometimes do go awry.  There is no one conception that, once discovered, works all the time.  Faults creep in from time to time and we have to search for them and find a way to correct them.  There are times when the swing is in the proper groove and the game can become almost easy.  But those happy times are invariably followed by a period of searching.

Bobby continues by saying:

"If the expert player, possessing a swing that is sound in fundamentals, has to be continually jockeying about to find the means of making it produce fine golf shots, what of the average golfer who has never developed such a swing?  Still groping for some sort of method that will give him a measure of reliability, it is only natural that he should try almost anything; and he must."

So, while it would be great to play the game with no swing thoughts; with a mind uncluttered by mechanical thoughts; the reality is that we will always have to do some tinkering in order to get better, or to maintain what we have.  That is the nature of the game, and part of its fascination.  

But when talking about what to tinker with, and what to leave alone, Bobby advised against any tinkering with the grip.  He wrote that once you have learned a proper grip, you should resist any urge to change it in an effort to correct a temporary hooking or slicing problem.  He concluded: "If the grip is wrong, change it by all means, but let the change be a permanent one."

All golfers, it seems, are in the same boat. Bobby wrote:

"To say that any round of golf offers a magnificent gamble in the way of form is to add nothing new.  We all realize that we can never know in advance how the shots will go on a particular afternoon.  To go even farther, we can have no assurance, after hitting seventeen fine tee shots, that the eighteenth will not be disgraceful.  These are the uncertainties the golfer accepts as parts of the game, and indeed loves it all the more because of them... To play any golf shot correctly requires an unwavering concentration.  The most perfect swing in the world needs direction, and plenty of it, and when its possessor begins to do a little mental daisy picking, something always goes wrong.  A perfect attunement of every faculty is a thing even the finest players attain only very rarely, but by constantly keeping a vigilant watch over themselves they are able to shut out major vices over a comparatively long period of time.  Their concentration is not occasional, but extends to every single shot, no matter how simple it may appear."

There's a wide gulf separating the champions from the average golfer, both in skill, and in the ability to concentrate.  But, as Bobby concludes his chapter, he points out that in one way, at least, we are in the same boat.  He wrote:

"But proper concentration during a round of golf is intended to accomplish something different from the perfect execution of each stroke.  Powers of concentration alone cannot make up for any vast deficiency of skill and bring a mediocre player up to the level of one who possesses more real ability.  But while on their respective form and ability to make shots and keep on making them, a wide gulf separates the champion from the average golfer, still, in one respect, their problems are the same when they start upon a round of golf.  What each wants is a good round for him, and this leaves a comparison of their expectations entirely out of the issue."

If we want to play our best, whether we are champions, duffers, or somewhere in between, we must concentrate on every shot.  The problem is, what do we concentrate on?  Unfortunately, as Bobby points out, the answer is not always the same.  That's why golf will never become boring.  It is, indeed, a "magnificent gamble."  We just never know how each shot will go.  All we can do is keep on hitting it, no matter what happens, and try to concentrate on every shot.  One shot at a time. That's all we can do.  

The Kid is Back

Jordan Spieth is back.  I thought his round of 66 on Friday was one of his best rounds of the year.  How he managed to shoot that score, on that track, the way he struck the ball, is hard to fathom.  But once again, we withessed an animated and determined Jordan Spieth on Saturday at East Lake.  Undaunted by the conditions, and some imperfect ball-striking, Spieth ground out another great round to chase down and secure the lead from Henrik Stenson.

After missing two cuts on the bounce and having issues with his putting that might have left some of us with some doubts, Spieth has now recovered the magic touch with the flat stick and his short game in general.  He looks like he's going to be tough to beat on this brute of a track, made even more brutal by the soggy conditions. 

It's surely going to be all about keeping your focus, scrambling, and holing putts tomorrow.  Sounds like exactly what we've seen from young Mr Spieth all week; and most of this year for that matter.  I'm not a betting man; but if I was, I'd be putting a few quid on the kid.  It would be a great exclamation point to put on a wonderful season by Spieth, somewhat over-shadowed by Jason Day's late-season brilliance.  

If Jordan pulls it off--and there's a good chance he will--there won't be any question about who will be voted the player of the year.  This kid is something very special.

Favourite Swings

I love watching the top players swing the club.  Often there are discussions about who has the best swing in the game.  When deciding on the best swing, I suppose there are two main criteria I look at: efficiency and durability.  If it is efficient, it won't require hours on the range keeping it in the proper groove.  If it's durable, it will last, and the player will enjoy a long career with a minimum of swing-related injuries.

On the various tours today, my favourite swingers are Henrik Stenson, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Angel Cabrera, and Colin Montgomerie.  I've stuck with the men, although there are many women who've possessed wonderful swings.  However, these guys have swings that have, and will surely continue to stand the test of time.  They can all move the ball both ways, and they don't seem to be in need of a swing teacher to hold their hands.

While Stenson is strong like bull, and might encounter some difficulty down the road generating the same kind of thump he delivers to the ball, he is surely the best ball striker in the game right now in his late thirties. I believe the stats bear this out.  His performance yesterday at the Tour Championship was pretty impressive.

As for Monty, Cabrera, and Jiminez; they have such natural swings.  They have developed swings that are perfect for them, and they've stuck with it, resisting the temptation to make changes.  Watching Jiminez continue to compete with both the flat and round bellies alike, it makes you wonder whether he'll ever quit.  Monty is enjoying a resurgence on the Champions Tour, and, as for Angel, who knows how long he'll be a threat if the putts are dropping.

There are so many technically great swings out there, but I love the natural-looking ones.  Of course I haven't mentioned Jack, or Lee Trevino, or Freddie, or Davis Love; and then there was a guy named Sam Snead, and Julius Boros...

Of course, the one thing great swingers need to be great champions is the ability to make the putts.  If you can't chip and putt, the best swing in the world won't win you the big ones.  Still, I love to watch great swingers.  Don't you?