Last month, you may remember me lamenting about a few swing ailments. I got back to the basics of grip, alignment, stance, and posture (GASP) and after some hard work at the driving range, all was well.

Well, not really. It was the start of a serious downward spiral. I let myself break rule #1: don’t abandon the plan without cause.

When my game went south, I did a couple of things that started a chain of events. First, I devoted all my practice time to work out my pitiful ball striking. That meant no work on the short game. Period.

The second thing I did was replace regular fitness workouts with range time. While I perceived that it was all right because I was still working, it wasn’t all right at all. I was breaking the discipline that I had built over several months.

Sure enough, when I got my ball striking back in order, predictably, my short game was a mess. I was playing a little better but I lost the ability to really score and start putting up the numbers I know I’m capable of.

And even worse, I started talking myself out of regular workouts because of the need for “rest” or because I felt I needed to practice. And eventually, I got wrapped up in working on Life in the Rough. Not so much in posts, but in a lot of behind the scenes work. (I won’t tell you how long that simple new header took me to do. Heh…)

It wasn’t long before I started to talk myself into straying from my diet a little here and there. After a stretch of that, I nearly completely derailed.

To compound all that, over a week ago, I did something to my foot that has kept me from playing, practicing, or working out since then. I’m not sure what the foot problem is, but having extra time on my hands had allowed me to come to grips with my failings during the last week and has really left me feeling beat down because I want to get on track but I’m stuck.

One thing my grandmother gave me before she left this world was a propensity toward gout, a painful arthritic condition that affects me where? That’s right, in my feet. So as I transition from whatever I tweaked last week, I can feel an oncoming episode that could keep me sidelined for days. I take a medication to prevent it, but as I laid around my apartment feeling sorry for myself this past weekend, I forgot to take it one day.

So why am I burdening you with all this? Certainly not for pity. No way. I dug this hole.

I’m telling you this because remember how I mentioned going back to basics at the top of this post? GASP: Grip, alignment, stance, posture? Well, that applies to life too.

Except it’s: diet, exercise, practice, play. I won’t be turning that into an acronym for obvious reasons.

The point is, that it’s time to get back to the basics. That means reviving my activity and diet logs. That means sticking to my plans. That means developing discipline again.

Where I went wrong was in trying to trash the plan because I was having serious trouble in one area. Well, guess what? I can hit my 2-iron to the moon now, but I can’t sink a putt, I feel like garbage, I’m not losing weight and probably actually gaining, and my endurance and strength are leaving me.

What a trade off.

The lesson learned is to show some patience. So what if it took me longer to work out the ball striking? I could have at least kept the rest of the ship from filling with water.

I have a goal I’m driving toward but I let myself lose sight of that in exchange for some short-term gratification. I know all too well that it’s going to take me years to reach even the bottom rung on my ladder of success. A few weeks injured or a couple of months dealing with some swing flaws is not that much time in the grand scheme.

As I sit here brooming up the pieces and reaching for the super glue, I share this nugget of learning with you: when things go sour, don’t lose sight of the goal. Keep the ship afloat while you work on whatever the critical problem is. It takes extraordinary patience, and I’m hoping I’m able to develop that trait.

I’ve been asked before what kind of ball a specific player should play. The easy answer is that there is no easy answer.

It used to be that certain designs were better suited certain players. For instance, when I took up the game, you would see better players using wound balata balls because of the increased spin that they provided. But those weren’t as suitable for higher handicap players because the spin they see is usually to the side. So, two-piece balls were more appropriate.

Today things are not as cut and dry. Technology in ball design has rocketed to unprecedented levels. You almost need degrees in engineering and chemistry just to understand what’s going on.

In fact, I’d be surprised if anyone can really recommend the best ball for you, unless that person understands your game well, as in the case of your golf pro, or better yet, a fitter who has done computerized launch analysis on your swing.

So, while I can’t recommend a specific ball to you, I think I can give you the questions you need to have answered that will help you make that selection. I can also help you understand the various characteristics in ball design.

The Questions

To start the process of selecting a golf ball, you should ask yourself a series of questions to help in the process of narrowing down the selections.

• How much do you want to spend?
  • If money is no object, then that’s great. For a lot of players, golf is expensive enough, so playing a tour-level ball is simply not an option. There’s no reason to consider Titleist’s Pro-V1 if you can’t afford to spend over $45/dozen.
• What is your ability level?
  • In all honesty, it really doesn’t matter too much what ball you’re playing if you play to a 30 handicap. Price should be the main factor there. If you can afford to lose a dozen Pro-V1s per round, then that’s fine, but it’s not really helping your game that much.
  • Conversely, as handicap level decreases, players get proportionally more benefit from the advanced features that come from “tour” balls.
• What characteristics can help your game the most?
  • Really, balls only provide a few characteristics that are of importance. Mainly, those are spin rate, distance, trajectory, feel and durability.

The Characteristics

We’ve established a handful of ball characteristics that are of importance when selecting a ball. Let’s look at each one.

• Spin Rate. This equates to stopping ability on the greens. The more spin you can get, the faster you can stop the ball on the green. It’s also a double-edged sword. More spin means more change in direction too. If you slice, a ball with higher spin will magnify that effect.
• Distance. It seems like every ball manufacturer proclaims the prowess of its lines of balls in the distance department. You don’t often hear ad campaigns saying things like “Shortest ball on tour” or “Our lack of distance will save you from having to hit half-wedges”. Distance is normally a result of several characteristics: spin, trajectory, dimple pattern, and core materials.
• Trajectory. This refers to the arc of the path that the ball takes during flight. It can be a high trajectory that gets the ball up in the air, or it can be a lower trajectory that keeps the ball down. This is usually a function of spin rate and dimple pattern.
• Feel. This is mostly a result of compression, or the density, of the ball. That measurement used to be important and was a selling point for virtually every ball on the market. Today, most manufacturers don’t even publish it. When you hit different balls, you’ll definitely notice a difference in feel when it is struck. Some feel harder and some feel softer. Balls with a softer feel often times also give better performance around the greens. Many of the top balls have a softer feel today than their counterparts did 10 or 20 years ago.
• Durability. This is basically a measure of how long a ball will last. Two things generally shorten a ball’s lifespan: the grooves on your irons, and hitting things you shouldn’t be hitting. Your irons, especially your wedges, can really do some damage if you pinch the ball on the turf at impact (that’s one factor, along with club head speed, that leads to a lot of spin). The grooves will actually cut into the cover material. And, of course, hitting cart paths, boulders, retaining walls, and other things of the sort will cause cuts and scuffs.

It used to be that some of these characteristics were mutually exclusive. For instance, a two-piece ball with a harder feel (compression) would lack in spin. And a ball with higher spin would lack in distance. Now, with the advanced materials and designs, manufacturers have made it possible to have your cake and eat it too, giving things like good distance and spin in a single ball.

Things to Not Worry About

Ball manufacturers try to overload you with a lot of technical details that sound impressive, but that don’t really mean much to most players. Let’s look at some of those things.

• Dimple Pattern. I think this might be the the most useless bit of hype out there. Titleist hypes the fact that their Pro-V1 balls have 392 dimples, and Callaway sells the hexagonal dimples in their HX line. But really, what does that mean to you? You’d need a degree in aerodynamics to really make a valid comparison. The dimple patterns just translate into the factors I listed above. The actual arrangement doesn’t mean much.
• Chemistry. In looking at the technical specifications for the Titleist Pro-V1, the core is made of Polybutadiene, the casing is Ionomer, and the cover is Urethane Elastomer. Honestly, does that mean anything to any golfer? I think not. I have no doubt that those materials are critical in the ball’s design, but really that just leads us back to the characteristics in the previous section. In fact, these materials just make the ball sound impressive and worth the $45/dozen that you pay for them. Admittedly, it’s more than a sales pitch, because it’s characteristics like those that let a ball like the Pro-V1 have high levels of feel, distance, and spin, all in one ball. But knowing how that’s accomplished is of no use to you, unless that sort of thing interests you.
• The number of “pieces” or layers in the ball. Titleist’s Pro-V1 and Callaway’s HX line have a three layers - a solid core, an outer core (or casing), and a cover. There was a time when this mattered more. But with all the design characteristics today, they come together to provide an over all set of playing characteristics (i.e. distance, feel, trajectory, etc.). It’s the whole picture that matters. If you want distance, then look for a distance ball. Knowing the composition of the core is not really important.

Narrowing the Choices

Well, here we are. All that information and still no closer to deciding on which ball to play. Let’s go back and look at your answers to the questions I asked.

What’s your budget?

If your answer is that no way you’re spending $40+ for a dozen golf balls, then forget the top line models. But don’t fret over it: if your game is solid you can play well with most of the balls on the market. If you’re on tour, then you might need that extra stroke or two. Otherwise, lower cost balls are not going to mean that you can’t score well.

What’s your ability?

If you’re a better player, then you can make good use of a tour-level ball. If you’re a high handicap player, then you probably can’t. A tour ball will help a high handicap player more than a lower-end ball, but it’s a matter of degrees. Any improvement will be small and is likely to not be noticed at all.

What characteristics will help your game the most?

If you hit the ball a long way but have trouble stopping it on the green, look for a ball with more spin. Usually, they’re the ones touted as tour balls or balls with performance/control. If you hit it short but straight, have a look at some of the distance balls out there.

Making a Selection

I will reiterate that without a doubt, the high-end tour balls will probably provide the most benefit to the most players. It’s just that high handicappers don’t have the consistency to notice. But for them, the same holds true for a distance ball too. That’s why I asked you to consider what you want to spend first.

If money is no object, then hit your favorite golf retailer and pick up a sleeve of the top offerings from each major player: Titleist Pro-V1, Nike One, Callaway HX Tour, Bridgestone Tour B330, Srixon Z-URS, etc. Then simply try them out and see which one you like best.

For everyone else, you need to arm yourself with the answers to the second and third questions about your ability level and where your game needs help, as well as the understanding about the various characteristics we discussed. Then, narrow down your choices within the major players and make sure you’re working within your budget.

If you’ve decided that you need more distance, then look at the distance balls in each category. For instance, you might consider the Titleist NXT Extreme, the Callaway HX Hot, Nike Power Distance, or one of the many other selections in the distance category.

If you need more feel, look for a softer ball like the Maxfli Noodle, Precept MC Lady, or the Titleist DT SoLo.

The bottom line is that armed with the answers to the questions I asked as well as which of the characteristics are most important to you, your pro shop or local golf retailer will be able to help you narrow your selections.

Even after you’ve narrowed down the brands and models, you’re still going to have to try each one out. There’s just no way around it. It’s not hard to find a ball in each brand that fits your needs. But comparing them with other brands is nearly impossible without just trying them for yourself.

If you look at the back of the box for most major brands, there’s usually a little bar chart comparing the different models in categories like distance and feel. And each model is nearly maxed out in everything except one will be a little higher in one characteristic and another one will be higher somewhere else.

Yeah, that’s helpful.

Looking at statistics, characteristics, ability and tendencies on paper also doesn’t mean you’re going to like a particular ball that seems like a match. You’re ultimately going to have to like and trust the ball that you play, regardless of whether the box tells you that it’s a perfect match for your game.

If after all this you’re still not sure, here’s another idea: hit the “experienced balls” bin at your course or retailer and just pick a variety of brands and models and simply hit the course and try them out. You might find a ball that just blows you away. Or, you might find out that they’re all the same to you. And you might even find out that the experienced balls bin is where you’re going to shop from now on.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t be. The ball takes a back seat to your swing as to what is most important to score well. Just pick something and go with it. If you don’t like it, pick something else next time. Getting obsessed over ball selection is not going to do much good.

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Further Reading:

Titleist Golf Balls Overview (Titleist.com)
Callaway Golf Balls (CallawayGolf.com)
Nike Golf (NikeGolf.com)

“Who’s Your Caddy?“, by veteran sports writer Rick Reilly is a humorous look at the ins and outs of being a golf caddy. The stories he amassed together with his sharp wit make this book a really fun read.

He got inside the ropes with some of the greats in the game and managed to find himself looping during none other than the Masters, his introduction to the mystic art.

He carried bags for the likes of greats like Tommy Aaron, Jack Nicklaus, John Daly and more. He also spent a round with someone whose name you might not know but whose story is still great: Bob Andrews, president of the U.S. Blind Golfers Association. From Donald Trump to Deepak Chopra, the tales he has to tell are funny, absurd, and inspiring.

It’s pretty widely known that caddies are some of the most interesting characters in the game of golf. At the end of each chapter, Reilly drops a passage of caddy lingo followed by an English translation, a skill he no doubt mastered spending time among the real thing.

Chapter List

1. The Masters: Get Your Mouth off My Ball!
2. John Daly: Unzipped
3. Donald Trump: The Search for True Trumpaliciousness
4. Tom Lehman: By the Way, You’re Fired
5. David Duval: The Maniac Behind the Shades
6. Dewey Tomko: Just a Lil’ Ol’ $50,000 Nassau
7. Jack Nicklaus: We’ll Always Have Vail
8. Deepak Chopra: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Double Bogey
9. Casey Martin: Hell on Wheels
10. Bob Newhart: The Anti-Trump
11. Jill McGill: Where’s Your Caddy?
12. Bob Andrews: The Blind Approach

The Good

• Reilly is a seasoned writer, having written for Sports Illustrated for over 20 years, and it shows. His style flows very well, and his wit is just dead-on. I found myself laughing out loud more than once.
• The tales he tells cover the whole range of the emotional scale. I have to admit I laughed at Reilly’s expense when Tommy Aaron scolded him with “Keep your mouth off my ball.” after an unwelcome plea of “Get up!” on the 5th hole at the Masters. I got a better understanding of what Casey Martin has to deal with, battling a rare leg disorder. It was fascinating to get a glimpse at how Bob Andrews, a blind golfer, makes his way around the course.
• Usually, I don’t pay much mind to the cover of a book, but I have to say that the photo of Reilly on the cover just gives me a chuckle and puts perfectly the plight of a writer trying to fill the shoes of a caddy.

The Bad

Maybe I’m just too easy to please, but yet again, I’m having trouble finding any negatives in this book. I think it’s because I just don’t review books I don’t like.

Conclusion

I have to give Who’s Your Caddy two thumbs up. Getting to look at the game from the perspective of a caddy (or, a writer posing as a caddy) is quite interesting. The wide array of characters coupled with Rick Reilly’s wit and style make this a quick read. Too quick, really.

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Further Reading:

Who’s Your Caddy? (Amazon.com)
Other Books By Rick Reilly (Amazon.com)
Rick Reilly Bio And Column Archive (SI.com)

I thought it would be fun to put together my list of the greatest golfers ever.

When I first started working on it, I intended to list ten, but then I came to the conclusion that it would be too easy. Think about it: think about the kinds of names that have to fall off the list when there are only five.

I didn’t go strictly off of wins. I tried to put an emphasis on what each player meant to the game, to what each player’s contribution was beyond just wins.

I also realized that it’s difficult to compare golfers from different eras. And, I came to the conclusion that if it’s fair to do so, then it’s fair to include female golfers in the comparison. Each player can only be judged against the competition that he/she faced in that particular era.

Without further ado, the list:

1. Tiger Woods

This was a tough call, because even with his 13 major championships, 59 PGA Tour wins, 22 other professional wins, and three back to back U.S. Amateur titles, he still falls short of Jack Nicklaus’ career totals.

However, Tiger Woods has transformed the game beyond what Jack Nicklaus ever had. He’s partly responsible for a large growth in golf that took place as he emerged in the 1990’s. Purses got larger, tournaments started getting more TV time, and he graced news broadcasts all over the world with spectacular victories like his 12-stroke victory at the 1997 Masters.

Many have remarked that Nicklaus had to contend with Player, Palmer, Watson, Trevino, and a whole slew of greats. That’s certainly true, but I think it’s a disservice to Els, Mickelson, Goosen, Singh, and the rest of the world’s top players to say that Woods doesn’t face stiff competition.

The fact is that he faces all challengers and dispatches them handily. The mental effect he has on other players is almost embarrassing. Some of the greats have shriveled and died in the shadow of Woods coming down the stretch.

He made dissecting golf courses such an art that now the word “Tiger-proofing” has become part of the vernacular. Of course, this is somewhat due to improvements in equipment. But he still finds ways to hit shots that are nearly impossible.

All that and he’s still going strong. Barring anything unforeseen, I’m confident that he will handily exceed Nicklaus in wins in both regular events and in majors.

2. Jack Nicklaus

As I said, it was a tough call to put him in the second spot. Nonetheless, he had a stellar career. With 73 Tour wins and 18 major victories, it’s hard to have to put him in second place. He had a staggering 94 tournaments where he finished second or third. He also played on six Ryder Cup teams, with a solid 0.66 winning percentage and he captained an additional two teams.

His 25 year career spanned from 1962 to 1986, where he won his final major: the Masters that year at the age of 46. He went on to win several events on the Champions Tour, as well.

At the height of his career, he was a part of what was dubbed, “The Big Three” together with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. The Big Three are widely regarded as the catalyst for making golf a major spectator sport.

Throughout his career he led the PGA Tour money list eight times.

Aside from his prowess on the course, Jack Nicklaus has been a tremendous ambassador off the course as well. He also continues to be a successful business man and prolific course designer. Without a doubt, he’s meant an awful lot to the game of golf.

3. Bobby Jones

To me, Jones was the embodiment of what golf is all about. Sportsmanship, fair play, and competitive spirit to name a few of his traits. He’s famously known for an incident where he called a penalty on himself, knowing it would cost him the U.S. Open. The USGA presents a yearly award for sportsmanship called the Bob Jones Award, in his honor.

He won the U.S. Open four times and The Open Championship three times. In addition, in those days the U.S. Amateur and The Amateur Championship were considered majors, which he won five times and once, respectively. He is the only player to have ever won all four majors in a calendar year (Tiger Woods has won four in a row, though across two seasons).

He played on five Walker Cup teams, winning nine of ten matches.

His total of 13 majors (including the amateur championships) might not seem earth shattering until you consider that Jones was a life-long amateur player and never played more than three months out of the year.

He retired from competitive golf at age 28 and went on to help design Augusta Country Club and co-founded The Masters, one of the most revered tournaments in golf, still today.

Outside of golf, Jones had degrees in engineering, English, and law and ran a successful law practice in Atlanta for many years.

4. Annika Sorenstam

This one is going to get some people’s blood pressure up. However, I submit that Sorenstam had a period of dominance in women’s golf that must be recognized.

In a period of 12 years from 1994-2006 she won a staggering 86 professional tournaments, including ten major championships. She finished in the top five on the LPGA Tour every year but 1994 during those twelve years. From 2001-2005 she dominated the tour finishing first each year and totaling 41 wins for the five-year period (an unbelievable average of over 8 wins per year for the time frame).

Sorenstam appeared in the Solheim Cup seven times and has the all-time points total as well as the second best points average.

In addition to her professional wins, she also won seven collegiate titles and the NCAA individual title in 1991 the year in which she as also NCAA co-player of the year.

She made a splash in 2003 after being invited to play in The Colonial on the PGA Tour. Her presence was met with both praise and harsh criticism. Though she missed the cut, she played reasonably including a 1-over 71 in the first round, showing that her presence was not a joke. Her second day was not as successful and she finished in 96th place.

Outside of golf, Sorenstam is a savvy businesswoman with several businesses under the ANNIKA brand. She’s also seriously interested in cooking and and investing.

5. Sam Snead

This was by far the toughest choice. Pause for a second and think of the names missing from this list. However, Sam Snead played at such a high level for so long, that I think he belongs in this spot.

Snead won an incredible 165 professional events, including 82 PGA Tour events, the most ever by a player. He also won seven majors. He won his first professional event in 1937 and his last in 1982, a senior event. That spans an incredible 45 years. The one dark spot on his resume is the lack of a U.S. Open win.

He held the record for most victories after age 40 until Vijay Singh took the title in 2007.

His Ryder Cup record was stellar with 7 appearances on the team and a winning percentage of 0.79. He also captained the team three times.

The Rest

It was really tough picking the top five. Here are the rest of the players I considered, in no particular order.

• Mickey Wright: Was possibly the greatest female golfer until Sorenstam, and some debate that she still is. She had 69 wins, including 18 majors.
• Gene Sarazen: 32 tour wins, including 7 majors. A solid winning percentage of 0.69 in the Ryder Cup in 6 appearances. Sarazen is credited with developing the modern sand wedge after a flying lesson with Howard Hughes.
• Ben Hogan: The “Wee Ice Mon” and his icy stare won 64 times, including 9 majors. Most famous perhaps is his playoff win in the 1950 U.S. Open after a near-fatal car accident the previous year.
• Walter Hagen: Credited with being the first full-time touring pro. He won 34 times on tour, including 11 majors. He is widely considered to be the best match play competitor of all time with his 0.83 winning percentage in 5 Ryder Cups as evidence of that.
• Arnold Palmer: It was hardest for me to leave him out of the top-five, because I’m such a huge fan. Palmer won 95 times as a professional (PGA Tour, senior, and other events) and had seven major victories. He was the first big golfing attraction on television in the 1950’s and his mob of fans known as Arnie’s Army is still recognized today.
• Byron Nelson: Had 63 professional wins with 5 major victories. In 1945 he won 18 events, including an unbelievable 11 in a row, feats which have never been matched. Critics have stated that it was due in part to weakened tournament fields that were impacted by World War II. His career was short: he retired to his ranch in Texas in 1946 at the age of 34, though he did not stop being an ambassador to the game.

Here’s your chance to vote for your top player of all time:

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Further Reading/Resources

Tiger Woods (Wikipedia)
Jack Nicklaus Career Capsule (Nicklaus.com)
Bobby Jones (Wikipedia)
Annika Sorenstam (Wikipedia)
Sam Snead (Wikipedia)
List of Golfers (Wikipedia)
World Golf Hall of Fame Members (World Golf Village)

Uh oh, another golf swing revolution.

Golf Digest has cornered that market on the stack and tilt swing, so Golf Magazine came out with a revolution of its own in the September 2007 issue. This time, it’s the “No-Backswing” swing.

The concept has been developed and studied by Top-100 teachers Dr. Jim Suttie and Dr. T.J. Tomasi. This isn’t a new idea. When I was first learning the game almost 15 years ago, a pro demonstrated this to me as a drill to get the feeling of swinging down from a proper position. However, Suttie and Tomasi have taken it to another level, including a study of its effectiveness.

The basic premise is that about 70% of swing faults of around 90% of golfers occur in the back swing. Those faults compound because they build on top of each other. A flaw during the back swing is very difficult to recover from.

The answer: start the swing at the top.

Of course, the “No-Backswing” is somewhat of a misnomer. After all, the club has to get up there somehow. But instead of a fluid move starting from address and moving through impact to the finish, the no-backswing swing starts with the left arm (for a right hander) parallel to the ground with the wrists fully cocked. From there, you do a move called “The Pump” where you get into the traditional top of the back swing position. From there, just hit the ball.

The full instructional article is available online at Golf.com, including a video of how to do the swing.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the article is the study that was conducted to test the effectiveness of the technique.

In the first experiment, 29 golfers of varying skill levels were tested by having them hit five balls with their regular swing and then five with the no-backswing swing. To me, the results seem unremarkable, but GD declares, “Nonetheless, the data indicates that the No-Backswing Swing works and has distinct advantages over the traditional way of swinging the club.”

The second experiment is the one I find most remarkable. In it, they asked reader Pat Sexton, an 8-handicap, to learn, practice, and play with the no-backswing swing for two weeks.

When he returned for follow-up testing, he gained 6.2 mph in club head speed, 10 mph in ball speed, and nearly ten yards of carry. Also of note is that his dispersion pattern tightened by almost 4 yards.

I’m having trouble deciding whether I favor playing like this. I really wanted to try it out tonight at the range, but I’ve been having some soreness in my foot that kept me on the couch.

I will say that I definitely agree with the point that a large number of swing faults happen well before reaching the top of the backswing and the errors can definitely compound making it difficult or impossible to recover prior to impact.

I suppose there’s not much to be lost by starting the swing at the top. After all, the energy is stored in the body’s coil and doing the coil and downswing in a single move doesn’t really increase the amount of stored energy. At that point, it’s simply a matter of timing and tempo. The “pump” move keeps you from having to start the downswing from a static position.

I’m definitely interested in giving it a try. Has anyone tried it, and if so, what are your thoughts? Can anyone think of any downsides?

After I get a chance to try it for myself, I’ll report back. Your homework assignment is to do the same.

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Further Reading

The No-Backswing Swing (Golf.com)
Join Golf Magazine’s National No-Backswing Study (Golf.com)
Dr. Jim Suttie Golf Training Centers (JimSuttie.com)
Dr. T.J. Tomasi’s Home Page (golfwithtjtomasi.com)