Sunday, I promised I’d share the secret of golf that I discovered in a lesson over the weekend.

It was said that Ben Hogan supposedly was coaxed to share his “secret”, but that he kept the real secret for himself.  Many now claim to know the lost secret move that gave Hogan’s swing the magic.

Well, I’m afraid that it has nothing to do with angles or positions.  If golf swings were meant to be a series of geometrical checkpoints, then players like Jim Thorpe, Jim Furyk, Lee Trevino, and so many others never would have made it to where they did.

I asked on Sunday if anyone knows what I’m referring to.  I will guarantee that the secret to the golf swing is something that any golfer has heard time and time again.  The question is, do you realize the importance?  I don’t think I did.

Are you ready to know?

Here it is:  tempo.

That’s it.  The secret to consistency in golf is tempo.  Of course, consistency is what leads to scoring and scoring, obviously, is success.

Do you feel cheated?  Did the answer not live up to the hype?  Let’s look a little further.

When we’re talking about tempo, we’re referring to the natural flow of the golf swing.  It is very much the same as tempo in a musical sense.  To strike the ball with solid contact and more importantly, to do it consistently, a player must have a smooth-flowing tempo and rhythm that lets him stay in balance.

I’ve heard it said that in many great players, the amount of time that the backswing and downswing take are nearly identical.  That’s tempo.  In a musical sense, we’re talking about beats, like with a metronome.  Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.  The golf swing is the same.  Tick (backswing) - tock (downswing).  Not tick-tooooooock.  Not tiiiiiiiiiiick-tock.

Let’s take a look at my own case.

As I told you on Sunday, I’ve resumed taking lessons and while I have had great success on the lesson tee, when I get on the driving range or on the course, it’s all been falling apart.

My problem?  I’m always trying to hit the ball too hard.

This is something my pro noticed immediately in my most-recent lesson.  I told you that he gave me three minor technical adjustments to make, but that wasn’t all.  He noticed within a swing or two that my tempo was way off.

When I swing the club back smoothly, and keep that smoothness through the transition to the down swing, through impact and into follow through, then I hit great shots.

Unfortunately, my tendency to try and hit the ball hard leads to some adrenaline creeping in and taking over.  Sometimes, I take a smooth backswing and then jerk the club down at the ball, trying to get some serious clubhead speed going.  Sometimes, I know I’m going to try and kill it, so my takeaway is jerky, and once I’m in a bad position at the top or my rhythym is off, then the shot is a disaster.

As I hit a few 7-irons, my pro had me dial back to try and only hit them 150 yards.  Still, I was smooth all the way to the downward transition, and then the adrenaline took over and I was pulling them left.  The tension in my hands and arms was causing me to flip the club closed.  I was hitting them off the toe.  It was bad.

Then, he did something that turned on the light bulb for me.  He handed me my pitching wedge and had me aim at the 100 yard flag.  Since a full wedge is about 125 yards for me, I had to dial it back.  I immediately fell into my Pelz-style, dead-hands, finesse wedge swing.  I began striking the ball crisply and on target.

After that, he simply handed me my 7-iron and told me to put my wedge swing on it.  I did and the results were immediate.

Surely you’re thinking that I can’t be suggesting to hit drivers with a finesse wedge swing.  No, not exactly.

What I’m saying is that he found a way to show me what proper tempo is, and how to bring it out of the wedges and into the rest of my bag.  It was there on the wedges but on full swings, I was just suppressing it.

Trying to increase my tempo by jerking the club from the top and trying to crush the ball was actually having the opposite effect.  I was tensing up and getting out of sync.  From there, all hope is lost.

I actually fall into a common trap on the range.  When I hit a solid shot at 70% power, then my natural tendency is to hit the next shot at 75% to get more distance.  Then 80%, then 90%, and so on.  Long before that, my ball striking has broken down because I begin to sacrifice tempo for power.

Then comes the funny part - do I then peel back to 70%?  No.  What happens then is, I try to “fix” the things that I perceive I’m doing wrong at that time.  I change my shoulder alignment, the alignment of my feet, the tilt of my spine, my distance from the ball.  On and on and on, until I have no hope of making progress.

My pro proved to me that tempo is the secret by forcing me to find it and then stick with it after I went back to my 7-iron.  The fact that I went back to hitting perfect shots proved that I wasn’t off-plane and didn’t have a bad wrist cock, or have too open/closed shoulders or anything else.

Are those things in my swing (alignment, plane, etc.) what you’d consider “textbook”?  No.  But they’re also not what’s keeping me from scoring well.  Before I get to the next level, we’ll look to refine those areas.  But building a foundation that includes tempo, rhythm, and balance is crucial.  I finally see that I didn’t have it.

Now, what you want to know is, what is the proper tempo for you?

I have no idea.  There is no single proper tempo.  Tempo is an individual trait.  Some players swing very quickly with a fast takeaway and a fast downswing.  Some players swing more slowly with a deliberate takeaway and downswing.

One thing is certain, though - the “beats” on your backswing and downswing (tick and tock) should be very close to the same.  Tick-tock.  Tick-tock.  Backswing-downswing.  You’ll need to adjust the pace of the beats to find your optimal tempo, but once you do, your ball striking will improve.

The beauty (and curse) of tempo is that it’s the foundation of the swing.  When things go bad, it’s like a baseline that can be comfortably returned to, like a ship returning to a safe harbor to escape a bad storm.  If tempo itself goes bad, then the swing begins to crumble.  I discovered that on Saturday.  As bad as I was hitting the ball, fixing my tempo immediately resulted in good shots again.

No matter how good or bad your mechanical swing fundamentals are, you’ll never reach the full potential of your swing unless your tempo is good.  If your tempo is poor, then without question it’s holding you back.

Still don’t believe the importance?  Well, how about this - I’ll show you any number of great players you want with different grips, stances, swing planes, and so on, and you point me to a single great player with poor tempo.  I’ll wait… Give up?

If you suspect an issue with tempo, then you have to try and work it out.  Hit balls to the beat of a metronome to get the feel of perfect tempo.  Don’t forget that you might have to slow it down or speed it up to match your natural rhythm.  If you don’t have access to a metronome, then just do the tick-tocking in your head as you swing.

Most likely, though, you don’t even realize there’s a problem with your tempo, so the best solution is to meet with a pro and get a swing check-up.  If you discover a problem with tempo and work it out, you’ll be making music on the course in no time.

In the words of Roberto DeVicenzo, “What a stupid I am.”

When I started this journey, one of my goals was to resume golf lessons. I had taken many in the past, prior to my back trouble a few years ago.

When I made the decision to try and become a pro, I had been reading, learning, and studying everything about how to play better golf. To me, it was a given that I’d engage in this continual learning and take it to the driving range and dig a great swing out of the dirt, like Ben Hogan did.

A year later, I’m still seeing my potential out there on the course, but wild inconsistency has left me floundering.

Finally, I decided that this isn’t something I can do all by myself, so I scheduled a series of lessons with the head professional at my club.

I went in there with a swing that feels foreign to me, a consistent snap hook, consistent off-center contact, and a bushel of frustration. In a half hour, with a single correction to my takeaway, he had me hitting straight, beautiful 7-irons, on-target, down the range.

I could hardly wait to get to the range over the next two weeks and groove this thing of beauty. I knew that while I was working on it, my swing was likely to get worse before it gets better. I was prepared for that.

Actually, I wasn’t as prepared as I thought. In my first full practice session, I was hitting the ball poorly. I started to try and “fix” myself. More weight on the right. Shoulders a little more closed. Stance more square. Posture more upright. And on and on. I mired myself in a geometry puzzle.

Unfortunately, in the two weeks between my first and second lessons, I was under the weather much of that time, but I managed to get in a few range sessions and nothing was improving.

I went in for my second lesson yesterday, dejected to say the least.

Within a few minutes, three minor corrections had me moving in the right direction. First, I was standing a bit far from the ball. Second, I was taking my eye off the ball a little before impact. Finally, I was gripping a bit tight. But those were just small corrections.

The real eye-opening thing came next. That, my friends, is when I discovered the secret of golf.

I was just about back to hitting the ball straight and pure. I just need more practice time to reel my swing back in. I can promise you this: there will be no angles and planes in my next practice session.

What’s the secret? Well, I can tell you that it has nothing to do with planes or angles or anything like that. I guess I can’t keep you in the dark. I’ll reveal the secret of golf on Tuesday. It’s something each of you has heard dozens of times.

Can anyone guess what it is?

Without a doubt, impact tape is my favorite golf practice aid. What? You don’t use impact tape? You could be missing out on the excellent feedback that it provides.

There is no question that a player will never reach full potential without the ability to strike the ball consistently on the sweet spot of the club.

No player hits the sweet spot every time, even Tour pros (though, their misses are much smaller and less frequent). Miss the sweet spot by just a little bit and you begin losing distance and accuracy. The more you miss by, the worse the shot result.

Many players can tell when a shot was poorly struck. But where did it miss? Toward the heel? The toe? High on the face? Low on the face?

This is where impact tape comes in. It’s nothing more than a little sticker that you affix to the club face. It is made of paper/ink that is pressure sensitive. When the club face strikes the ball, the tape shows a dark circle, telling you precisely where the ball and club face met.

So how do you use this information?

The player that gets the most benefit from impact tape, in my opinion, is the player that doesn’t even know what a solidly struck shot feels like. There are players out there that have grooved toe or heel hits for so long that those shots feel “normal”. This is especially true with the big, forgiving, modern drivers.

The best solution is to work with a pro to iron out swing issues, but if you find that you tend to hit the ball off center, then the only thing you can do is - stop doing it! It’s as simple as that. If you’re striking the ball on the toe, then set up to the ball and try to hit the ball on the heel while analyzing successive shots with the tape. Tiny differences will feel huge, but eventually you’ll get into the zone and start hitting pure shots.

The things you learn from this exercise pay dividends into the future. When you take the time to study the quality of contact, you’re not just making an immediate correction. You’re learning exactly what a toe-hit feels like. Or a heel hit. Or a thin shot. As you file this information into your brain, you’ll find that when you hit the course, you’ll have a fine tuned awareness as to where you’re tending to miss shots on the club face.

You can’t make minor corrections without knowing which way to correct.

I’m getting near the point now that I can tell how much I missed by feel alone. I still use impact tape occasionally during practice sessions, though, especially at a time like this when I’ve been taking lessons and making swing changes where I’m in the “it gets worse before it gets better” rut. It’s always good to tape up once in a while and make sure your contact with the golf ball is what you think it is.

I’ll share a little secret, too. Impact tape can be kind of expensive, so as a cheap alternative, masking tape works wonders. Just tape up the club face and go at it. You’ll be able to analyze each shot the exact same way.

Impact tape is yet another way to make the most of practice time. Give it a shot and see what you find out.

Without a doubt, Peter Jacobsen holds a place in my dream foursome. He has a reputation as golf’s funnyman, a role which he fills well, but he’s also a fan-friendly, fun, and totally “gets it” when it comes to being a professional in the public eye.

When I picked up a copy of Embedded Balls by Jacobsen with Jack Sheehan, I had high expectations that I’d be getting candid Jacobsen at his best. I wasn’t disappointed.

Chapter List

1. Memories of Payne
2. Tinseltown and Big John
3. Plugged In
4. A Breakout Year
5. Hartford and My Heart
6. Please…I’m Trying to Concentrate Here
7. A Senior Moment…Interrupted
8. The U.S. Senior Open : How it All Went Down
9. The Pros and the Ams
10. Tiger and Fluff…And Other Stuff
11. Carrying on a “Tradition”
12. Things We Can Do Better

This book is absolutely packed full of interesting and funny anecdotes. Here’s a look at a few of my favorites:

• There’s a hillarious story about his father meeting Clint Eastwood inside the ropes at the Gerald Ford Invitational.
• There’s a touching and funny chapter about his friend, the late Payne Stewart.
• One incident I had never heard about - John Daly missing drilling a drive into a spectator’s face by about a foot - at a golf clinic.
• He includes a chapter about what Tour pros can do better, including a story about a dressing down he got from Arnold Palmer about signing an illegible autograph for a fan.
• He recounts his difficult recovery from hip surgery and his subsequent win at the 2004 U.S. Senior Open
• There’s a look at his foray into Hollywood, both in his supporting role in the movie Tin Cup (one of my favorites) and his show Plugged In on The Golf Channel (also one of my favorites).

The Good

Where do I start? The book reads like Jacobsen is sitting right there in my living room shooting the breeze. Once I started, I had trouble putting it down. I mentioned a few of my favorite moments above, but there are tons of great stories shared in this book. Some of them brought back well publicized stories like the saga of one-time Tiger caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan, who looped for Jacobsen for a long time prior to that. Some were things I hadn’t heard like the story of an apprehensive Arnold Palmer and his participation in a show with trick-shot artist Chuck “The Hit Man” Hiter.

The Bad

What’s not to like? Sometimes I have trouble formulating criticism about books I review (I don’t tend to review the bad ones). I’m pretty sure I’m covered here, though - I wouldn’t change a thing in this book.

Conclusion

If you’re a fan of Peter Jacobsen, then you’ll love this book. Even if you’re not, I still think you’re going to like it. It was fun and interesting and a great behind the scenes look at the experiences of a long time tour pro. Through the good and a bad, Jacobsen maintains a positive attitude and describing him as fan-friendly is an understatement. And boy does he know how to tell a story!

This year’s U.S. Open championship is going to stick in my memory for a long time. Today was a great day to be a golf fan. My only regret is that I didn’t see it live (darn job). I must confess to having one eye on the leader board and on the constantly updating blogs throughout the day.

I’m not much for predictions, but I did say that I wouldn’t bet against Tiger Woods. The things he accomplishes are almost beyond belief.

An even better story this year was Rocco Mediate. I’m a big Tiger fan, and almost always root for him. There was one problem this week - Rocco is too easy to root for. Every comment you hear about him is positive. His attitude is great. He has fun on the course. He interacts with fans. He was the underdog, if there ever was one.

As Sunday’s round shaped up, I couldn’t help but get in Rocco’s corner. At 45 years old, he would have been the oldest player ever to win a U.S. Open. As it came down to the wire, it felt like a paper-thin lead. Tiger obviously showed why he’s the king of clutch play, with his putt on 18 to get into the playoff.

I have to admit believing that Rocco and Tiger going head to head today wouldn’t be pretty. I had anticipated Tiger applying a huge beating. I would be happy for him, but sad for Rocco, having been so close to winning, only to get destroyed in a playoff.

Except it didn’t happen that way.

Oh, he certainly appeared to be in trouble, being down by three strokes at one point. But he stayed calm and steady and eventually regained the lead. He showed a great competitive spirit. Many players would have wilted in that spotlight, especially down by three. Not Rocco.

We now know it wasn’t meant to be. Tiger was too much, but it took a sudden death hole to decide it and he did it on a bad knee.

I have to thank both players for such a memorable Open. Today, they showed what golf is all about - fierce competition, coupled with excellent sportsmanship. I’ve never seen a player so gracious in defeat as Rocco Mediate was today.

At first, I was a little sad that he lost, but given his positive attitude, I think he’s going to turn this experience around and make a resurgence on tour, at least for the near future. Unfortunately, his age is a factor, but he says his back is absolutely pain free. On top of that, he proved that he could stare down what will probably be the best player that ever lived. Maybe he’ll have a couple of decent years as he coasts toward the Champions Tour.

Congratulations to both of them.