Tinkeritis

Bobby Jones' father, Mr Robert Tyre Jones Sr., and I seem to have been afflicted with the same golfing disease. We were, and in my case still are, afflicted with tinkeritis. We tinker with our swing when we are supposed to be playing golf. My old father had the same disease. I think it's quite common in golfing circles.

Bobby wrote about his father in his book Golf is my Game. I think it's worth sharing as it may--but probably won't--help other similarly afflicted. Tinkeritis is a serious disease that, if left untreated, can simply ruin your game. Bobby wrote:

    "One of the greatest gifts golf gave me was the enjoyment of many years of playing association with my father. We started to play the game about the same time, and from the time I was thirteen or fourteen we had the same golfing companions. On one occasion he and I met in the finals of the club championship. In later years we played together two or three times a week.

     For many years the offices of our law firm were arranged so that there was an inside connecting door between Dad's office and mine. I used to stop by for him in the mornings so that we arrived at the office together.

     Almost invariably immediately after we reached the office, Dad would appear through this inside door, carefully close the door from my office to the hall, select a club from several I had in the corner, and confront me across the top of my desk, 'Here's something I discovered the other day. See what you think of it,' he would say.

     Whereupon he would demonstrate, and I would comment--as briefly as possible, I admit--in order that we both might get some work done.

     But Dad was a dedicated golfer. He always seemed to think he was on the verge of discovering the secret of the game. It cost him untold agony, but he loved it. The secret he had shown me in the morning never worked in the afternoon, but he always discovered a new one on the seventeenth hole and went home happy and with something to show me the next morning.

     There might have been other things wrong with these secrets, but the fact is that they were never given a chance. The golf course in the midst of a round is no place to experiment or try anything new. The only place for that is the practice tee, and Dad never went to the practice tee before a round.

     We hear a lot these days about the repetitive or repeating golf swing. It seems to be a new term in the golfing jargon. Obviously, like the semi-automatic shotgun, it is a fine idea. If a golfer could only set himself in the same position each time and, by pulling a mental trigger, release the identical swing, he would be a happy fellow. Even though the swing might be bad, at least he would know where to look for the ball.

     The struggle for good form in golf has purpose, because a sound, simplified swing can perform with greater regularity. But one of the eternal beauties of the game is that it will never be susceptible to such rigid control. The feel of the club is altered from day to day by changes in the weather, and the player's senses respond differently because of the myriad of influences within his own make-up. It is important to test out this feel every day, either before the round or as early as possible in the play...

     If I should be limited to one piece of advice to offer to a golfer before the start of a round, it would be, 'Take your time'. And it would mean to take your time and to avoid hurry in everything; to walk to the first tee and from shot to shot at a leisurely pace; to pause before each stroke long enough to make a considered appraisal before deciding on the shot to play; and, above all, to take a little more time if things should begin to go wrong."

Tinkeritis is particularly prevalent among players like myself who don't tend to go to the practice tee. I figure I've only got so many more swings left in me; and besides, if I haven't figured it out by now, chances are I won't find it by hitting a bucket of balls. Like Bobby's father, I tend not to give things a chance. If I hit a couple of stinkers I immediately try another swing. I do this knowing full well that it's the strike that is the only thing that counts in the end.

I played today with the same swing all day. I hit some stinkers and a couple of beauties, but in the end your score invariably comes down to how well you chip and putt. Today my putting stunk and so did my score. But then part of the problem may have been my switching back and forth between looking at the hole and looking at the ball. I think I'll stick with looking at the hole if I can because it helps with distance control and stops me watching the putter head go back, which is a cardinal sin.

As Bobby advises, we need to restrict our tinkering to the range. Once we're on the course the only thing we need to think about is finding our rhythm and getting the ball in the hole in as few swings as possible. In golf it's all about how many, not how.

Two Hours and Fifteen Minutes

I played at Glen Lakes with Gary yesterday. He's from Ohio, but spends his winters in Foley, Alabama. We both enjoyed the golf course but struggled on the greens most of the day. Whether it was grain on those Bermuda greens that was confusing us Northerners, or just lack of concentration, we couldn't seem to buy a putt.

This was Gary's first time playing Glen Lakes. He had an amusing story about playing at a new course with one of his buddies. At the the first tee, trying to break the ice, his buddy asked the stern-faced starter what the course record was.

The starter growled, "Two hours and fifteen minutes. So, move your asses."

Gary, CJ and I played in about three hours today in spite of a couple teeing off in front of us on the back nine as we made the turn. Our golf may not have been anything to write home about, but that starter would have been impressed.

Glen Lakes

I played Glen Lakes Golf Club in Foley, Alabama the last two days. I'd never played the course, and yesterday, since I was playing alone, I thought I'd have a go from the back tees. 

Glen Lakes has three nines, and I started on the Dunes, which is 3554 yards from the tips.  My second nine was the Vista which was a mere 3358 yards, for a total of 6912 yards. It didn't seem so long when compared to the courses the big boys are playing, but I soon discovered I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew. I was hitting fairway woods into more par fours than I care to remember for my second shots and I think the shortest club I used from the par three tees was a 25 degree wood. 

Glen Lakes has front tees, coloured purple, that measure 4255 yards, and my darling wife, who rode around with me, was kind enough to point out that I was at least managing to get my tee shots past the purple tees. It didn't really make me feel any better.

I hung in there after taking a double bogey on the first hole, went out in a sizzling--or should I say, fizzling--42 and came home in 39 for 81. I had hit every fairway but two, but had managed to hit only four greens in regulation, so that 81 didn't feel so bad. I'd only three-putted once. I had also bogeyed both par fives on the back despite being only a yard or two from the green in three, and I'd failed to get it up and down all three times I'd found a greenside bunker. So, other than that, I figured I had scrambled like a madman to manage an 81.

At the end of the day I told my wife that my days of playing from the tips were over. I just can't hit it far enough anymore. But then, today I played from the whites and stick-handled all over the greens and shot 80. Therefore, maybe it isn't distance that's my problem, it might just be LOFT. Lack of freaking talent!

Glen Lakes is a very good course. They've moved a lot of earth to provide lots of mounding and uneven lies. There is plenty of room off the tees, but there is also good bunkering and enough water to make things interesting. The greens are good, too, which generally means I have a hard time putting them. Give me poor greens any time. At least that way I have an excuse. 

I really do like the course and intend to play it again--maybe even tomorrow. Who knows; I might try playing from the golds. If I keep moving up I might finally manage to break 80. But then again, the greens are really good.

The Most Important Thing a Golfer Can Learn

What is the most important thing a golfer must learn? Some people might say, "A good grip." Others might say, "A sound swing." Or, perhaps you might argue that good judgement, or effective course management is the most important thing to learn. To get to the highest level in the game, you might believe that patience is most important. 

All those things are important to learn. But Bobby Jones, in his book, Golf is my Game, tells us what is most important. In his chapter entitled Striking the Ball, Bobby wrote:

    "This will be the most important chapter of this book. It will describe the most useful learning you will ever acquire as a golfer. You may gain knowledge from the mere reading of this chapter that will help you in the playing of every golf shot you make for the rest of your life. This knowledge can make you a better golfer overnight.

     If you are a beginner, this chapter will start you off on the road to a correct understanding of the nature of golf. If you are an average golfer, it will give you the means of deciding upon the club to use and the shot to play on the basis of reasoned judgement, rather than guesswork. If you are a better than average golfer, it will broaden your perception of the possibilities in the game so that you may become a player of imagination and resourcefulness. If you are weary of being told to concentrate without having knowledge of what you should concentrate on, this is it."

Bobby Jones was not just blowing smoke when he wrote this chapter. He was certainly not someone who engaged in hyperbole. He was not one of those guys who prefaced his teaching with absurd promises like How to hit it solid every time. Bobby was a golfing prodigy, who played the game at the very highest level at a very young agr. By the age of twenty eight he had won thirteen Major championships, including all four in the same year. He was arguably the greatest player of all time. 

But Bobby was not just a great player. He was an ardent student of the game. He studied other great players. He analyzed his own game and learned what it took to become the very best. He did all of this as a part-time golfer who earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech, a degree in literature from Harvard, and a license to practise law. He was a golfing genius who possessed the intelligence to really put it all together as far as the game of golf was concerned. 

Consider what he concluded in providing, what he considered, the most important knowledge a golfer could acquire:

    "Golf is played by striking the ball with the head of the club. The objective of the player is not to swing the club in a specified manner, nor to execute a series of complicated movement in a prescribed sequence, nor to look pretty doing it, but primarily and essentially to strike the ball with the head of the club so that the ball will perform according to his wishes.

     No one can play golf until he knows the many ways in which a golf ball can be expected to respond when it is struck in different ways. If you think that all this should be obvious, please believe me when I assure you that I have seen many really good players attempt shots they should have known were impossible."

This is the most important knowledge any golfer can acquire. If you haven't done so, I would highly recommend you read the second chapter of Bobby's book, Golf is my Game. If you don't have a copy of the book, I have covered it in some detail in my featured article entitled The Wisdom of Bobby Jones: Striking the Ball. It could lierally make you a better player overnight. 

Trouble Shots

If there's one thing all golfers can be certain of, it's that sooner or later--and often sooner than later--they will find themselves in trouble. It's part of the game. And, as with most other subjects, Bobby Jones provided some real valuable insight into how we should manage trouble shots. In his book Down the Fairway, Bobby wrote:

    "As a general proposition I fancy it might be laid down that the main object of a trouble shot in golf is to get out of trouble. This conclusion is not so obvious as at first it may appear, especially in the case of the average golfer, or worse. In that case, the object, or it might be better called the perilous ambition, is not only to get out of trouble but also to achieve a shot the equivalant of that which might have been made had the element of trouble not been injected.

     He wants to get there, anyhow.

     Now this ambition is in a way laudable, and at times it is grimly necessary to execute a shot which will minimize the punishment for getting in trouble. But it should always be borne in mind that, if a brilliant recovery be needed, it is far more feasible to make this brilliant effort after getting the ball back into a thoroughly playable position.

     Now, I can speak with considerable feeling, if not with authority, on this point. The greatest improvement in my game in the last five years has been a growing disposition for calculating a difficult situation, and an increasing distaste for the taking of reckless chances. In the old days, furious with myself for the missed shot that had incurred the trouble, I was quite ready without further consideration to go up to the ball and put my back into a shot designed without delay to take up the slack. Now, I figure the chances a bit--sometimes."

Bobby then went on to describe some situations he had encountered and how he had dealt with them.  He concluded by saying: "So, I can't help the opinion that it is judgement more than mechanical execution that counts when you're in trouble."

Golf is the ultimate head game. What is most important for all of us, regardless of our level of skill, is our ability to use good judgement. As Bobby Jones aptly pointed out, it is easier to learn to use good judgement than it is to learn to swing a club like Harry Vardon. So, we should be encouraged. If we take the time to analyze the situation and hit the smart shot, we just might find that we will have fewer big numbers on our card. And, making fewer big numbers is the key to scoring. 

The Secret

If anyone ever figured out the secret to golf, it had to be Bobby Jones. He played in his first US amateur championship at fourteen. After seven years of barely missing in many of the open championships he entered, he went on a tear and won thirteen of them in the next seven years, including all four in his final year. With no more mountains to climb in golf, Bobby retired from competition and turned his attention to sharing his knowledge of the game. 

The real secret of golf, according to Bobby Jones, was learning how to turn three shots into two. In fact, more precisely it is the ability to figure out how to save strokes and how not to waste them by impulsive or reckless play. At the time he wrote his book Down the Fairway, Bobby was only 25 and four years into his seven good years. At that point he had figured out that the secret was to play consistently good golf, rather than trying to rely on flashes of sensational golf. He learned to try to play along with Old Man Par, rather than worrying about his opponents' play. Bobby wrote:

    "I've wasted some time wondering if I might qualify for the position of champion runner-up. I've been runner-up in seven open championships; three American nationals; one Canadian; two southern; and one Florida West Coast championship. All at medal play. That one little stroke a round certainly does make a difference in the records. The saving of one stroke per round would have won all these but the Canadian, when Douglas Edgar was a matter of sixteen strokes ahead of everybody. And there's always at least one stroke in every round you can figure (afterward) that you really ought to have saved. But I suppose it's all in the book, and if you had saved that stroke, you'd have dropped another.

     There are always a number of strokes in a round you might have dropped, too. But you don't think so much about them.

     Queer game, golf."

Later, when summing up the reason for his Grand Slam victory, Bobby actually admitted that he was not playing his best golf. What he did confess, however, is that he believed the reason he was able to accomplish this unbelievable feat was that he simply refused to give up. He believed that he simply tried harder and was willing to take more punishment than his opponents. That was about as vain as Bobby, ever the humble, or self-effacing, type, could be. 

So the secret to golf in a nutshell, again according to Bobby, was not some secret swing move. It was figuring out how to score even when you are not playing your best; because, at the end of the day, the score is all that matters. No points are awarded for style.

On the other hand, when writing about his "biggest year" of 1926--this was written before he won the Grand Slam--Bobby did write about a very important swing key when he wrote:

    "Golf is a very queer game. I started the year with one glorious licking and closed it with another. And it was the biggest golf year I'll ever have (he hadn't started thinking about the possibility of winning them all in one season at this point)...I fancied I was in for a good season, and then this drubbing (at the hands of Walter Hagen, who beat him 12 and 11 in a 72 hole match) came along and showed up glaringly the defect in my iron play which had started troubling me at Skokie, in the open championship of 1922. I set to work on that department, and I think it was Jimmy Donaldson, who was with Armour at Sarasota, who gave me the correct line--too much right hand in the stroke. I worked on the irons every time I had a chance up to the British invasion. And the irons served me fairly well the rest of the year... Whenever I could get the feel that I was pulling the club down and through the stroke with the left arm--indeed, as if I were hitting the shot with the left hand--it seemed impossible to get much off line. Curious thing. The older school of professionals always insisted the golf stroke was a left-hand stroke, you know."

That's why I keep preaching about top-hand golf. If there is one swing key that was embraced by virtually all the top players before Bobby Jones, and recommended by Bobby, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, and Jack Nicklaus, among countless others; it was the importance of the swing being controlled by the left hand for right-handed players. If that left hand and arm is pulling the club down and through the stroke along the target line, chances are the ball will not be far off line. It may be an old teaching, but it's an important one. It might just be the most important move you can learn. 

Don't believe me; believe Bobby Jones; and Sam Snead; and Byron Nelson; and...

It Beats Thinking About Your Backswing

Though never having considered himself a teacher, Bobby Jones was willing to admit that he had shown himself to be a very capable learner. He quite rightly pointed out that it wasn't so much the teacher's ability to teach that was important; it was actually the student's ability to learn that made the difference.

Golf is very much a solo sport where, again as Bobby Jones pointed out, you soon learn that your most potent adversary is yourself--not your opponent, or the golf course, but rather yourself. To play the game well you must develop an understanding of the golf swing in general and your golf swing in particular. There is only one absolute when it comes to golf. That absolute is that a ball struck squarely in the back, with the clubface square to the target and moving straight down the target line, will fly straight, unless affected by wind or mud on the ball. You can be certain of this result. 

The thing a golfer must learn is how to strike a ball in this way. It is really all about the strike. Consider what Bobby Jones wrote in his book Golf is my Game when discussing the backswing:

    "The swinging of the 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 a 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."

This is the secret to the game. One must learn and understand how a ball must be struck in order to make it behave, and then one must swing the club in such a way as to assure that strike. Bobby played that way, confident that, if he focussed intently on the strike, his swing would take care of itself.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? To hit a straight shot all you have to do is hit the back of the ball solidly with your clubface square to the target and moving down the target line. 

I remember the day Steve finished a round and was absolutely disgusted. He had been hitting the ball all over the place and asked me to watch him hit some shots on the range. He wanted me to try to tell him what was wrong with his swing. 

I stopped him before he could hit a ball and bent down to the golf ball. Using his clubface I moved it a foot or so, from a few inches behind the ball stright down the target line. I then said, "Make the club strike the ball like that."

I stepped back and watched him hit the straightest, most beautiful, seven iron I'd ever seen him hit. He looked at me and just shook his head. When he focussed on how he wanted the clubface to behave, he was quite capable of doing it. Golf is all about concentration and focus.

So, what should you focus and concentrate on? Well, I'm not a teacher either, but Bobby Jones said it must be the strike. And I don't think you can argue with that logic. It only makes sense that you visualize and concentrate on striking the ball as it must be struck. It beats the hell out of thinking about your backswing.