Yeah, I know, you’re tired of hearing me say how important the short game is. It seems to be the conventional wisdom and rightly so. It’s impossible to progress your game without a solid short game. I learned something interesting over the weekend. Not only will a good short game bail out our pitiful swing flaws. It will prevent us from reaching the next level at the exact same time. Indulge me in a little personal reflection so I can explain what I mean by that. Over the winter, I came to the realization that I have not been putting enough work into the short game. Putting, chipping, pitching, finesse wedges, bunker play, the whole works. I’m certainly proficient in the techniques and have passable skill, but not the kind of refined technique that leads to serious scoring. The first thing I did when winter broke was spend about 2/3 of my practice time around the practice green. And this is on top of the fact that I committed a LOT more time to practice
Is the Stack and Tilt Losing Steam?
Since 2007, when Golf Digest first published its feature on the new-fangled swing, Stack and Tilt fever has swept the internet. At the time, Aaron Baddeley was the poster boy for the swing on Tour. Over time, stars like Mike Weir adopted the swing, as well. A couple of weeks back, I heard that Baddeley had given up on the swing and gone back to his old coach Dale Lynch. Then, I was somewhat shocked to read that Mike Weir did the same, returning to coach Mike Wilson. Chris Henry at Eagle Par Birdie weighed in on the situation, making the point that pros change swings all the time and that this is really getting attention because the swing has been controversial since day one. Both of these things are true, but I’m still surprised. Two things echoed through my mind as I read about Baddeley and Weir changing swings again. First, I did a post a while back that crunched the stats for both Baddeley and Weir and a few other Stack and Tilters
Progress Update: May 15, 2009
The struggles of this game never cease to amaze me. Yet, I see some light at the other end of a long, long tunnel. I’ve been working with my pro regularly since early in the spring. We’ve identified a number of things for me to work on, most of which I’ve mentioned previously. When I say, “we’ve” identified, I mean he’s identified and I’ve responded with “ahh” or “hmm”. Here are the things I’m working on: Improved takeaway. This is my number one problem. A poor takeaway puts me in poor position at the top and causes some big problems. My pro gave me the imagery of starting the back swing by moving the back of my right hand straight back away from the target. That’s really been helping me feel the correct move. Better tempo. In general, my tempo is pretty good, but sometimes I get a little adrenaline and get a little quick at the top of the back swing. Solid weight transfer during the back swing. I tend to keep my weight
The Downhill Lie Giveaway Winners
Last week, I asked you to tell me if you’ve ever left the game and why, for a chance to win a copy of The Downhill Lie, Carl Hiaasen’s tale of woe chronicling his taking up the game again after over 30 years away. There are two winners to the contest: the story I liked the most, and a second winner chosen at random from the remaining entries. I will be contacting each winner by e-mail shortly. First I’d like to thank Vintage Publishing for sponsoring this giveaway. Stay tuned in the near future for my complete review of the book. Now, the random winner. Congratulations to Chris, who shared a great story of discovering the challenge of him versus the course instead of him versus other players after having given up the game for 18 months. And, now for the winner that I selected. First, I want to say that I really enjoyed all the entries and it was truly difficult to pick a winner. I’m not just saying that to console everyone who
5 Ways to Stay Sharp When Weather Keeps You Inside
It’s been raining here in one form or another for the better part of the past week. I did manage to get out to the driving range on Tuesday, but other than that, Mother Nature has foiled me again. For many of you, it’s tough to find time to play golf, let alone commit time to improving. With family, job, and other obligations, just blocking out four or five hours on the weekend to play is tough enough. It’s even more tough when there are violent thunderstorms or torrential downpours that turn your precious golf time into something else time. Then, to make matters worse, it can happen for a few weeks in a row. As we all know, golf is a “use it or lose it” skill. Those of us who deal with an off season know that it takes a while to get it back in spring. The last thing you need is to lose it in the summer because of some poorly timed rain. The first step in all this when your
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