As I tuned into the final round of the Memorial tournament on Sunday, I noticed something as I watched the commercials in between play: the scientific engineer buzzwords and acronyms are becoming more and more mainstream. In one commercial, they actually explicitly called out the club’s M.O.I. How many people even know what that is? I thought I’d lay out a couple of the technical buzzwords so when you tune in, it’ll be familiar territory. MOI, or Moment of Inertia is a fancy way of describing how a club torques or twists both in the downswing and at the moment of impact. The club head is affixed to the shaft at a single point. The MOI is really a measure of how the club resists torquing. If you hold your driver by the grip in one hand and grab the head in the other hand and give it a twist, you’ll notice that the head turns a little. At the moment of impact, the force on the club is tremendous. The center of gravity of
Keeping Practice Rounds Interesting
I saw an episode of Playing Lessons from the Pros featuring Bruce Fleisher on The Golf Channel recently, and he talked about a fun thing he does during practice rounds to make it interesting and competitive. What he does is, on an approach shot, he’ll intentionally miss a green to a certain spot. This allows him to put himself in different random up and down situations, even when he’s playing well. If he’s playing well and not missing too many greens, then his short game isn’t getting worked too much. This is a way to do that. On top of that, if he’s playing practice rounds with others, they can make a game of it: calling their miss and trying to get up and down. It would be easy to devise a point system where a player is docked a point for missing his miss and hitting the green. That would keep it interesting. I like this little game for several reasons: It’s a fun way to make practice interesting. It’s a good way to
The Rules of Golf
You may have wondered: where do the Rules of Golf come from? Who has the authority to shape the game of golf? There are two primary organizations that are charged with maintaining the Rules of Golf: The United States Golf Association (USGA) and The Royal & Ancient Golf Club (R&A), St. Andrews, Scotland. The USGA governs golf in the United States, it’s territories, and Mexico. The R&A governs golf pretty much everywhere else. Since 1952, the USGA and R&A have come together periodically (currently every four years) to jointly issue the Rules of Golf. The two bodies review, refine, and clarify the rules. No change is made without acceptance from both bodies. This allows for uniformity in the rules all over the world. It might seem like there wouldn’t be a whole lot to do with less than 40 rules on the books. On the contrary. There are hundreds of decisions on the rules. Situations arise on the course all the time that stress the wording and intent of the rules, so the governing bodies
Ok, So the Course Can Be a Laboratory Too
I know I’m always saying how the practice range should be your laboratory and that you should leave the experimentation there. And while I still think that’s important, as I was roaming the fairways Saturday afternoon, I realized that I really need to qualify that thought. What I’m really trying to get across is that if you’re trying to score, then leave the experimentation on the range and dance with who ya brung and all that. Whether it’s serious competition, or just a matter of trying to do your best, you don’t want to be jeopardizing that with untested or inconsistent techniques. At the same time, the course can be valuable for experimenting. My situation is a perfect example. I haven’t posted scores or stats for a long while, yet I’m practicing all the time, and playing around three 9+ hole rounds per week. I tend to go out in the late afternoon and my course is usually wide open then. That lets me mostly have the place to myself. What I’m not doing in
What to Do After a Dip in the Water
We can’t spend a week at the beach without ending up in the water at some point, right? I’m going to wrap up beach week by reminding you that your golf ball is going to go for a swim at some point. Do you know what all your options are? First, there are two types of water hazards: the water hazard (outlined by yellow stakes) and the lateral hazard (outlined by red stakes). The difference between the two is that lateral hazards are those where it’s been deemed that it’s impractical to drop behind the hazard. For instance, a creek running along parallel to the fairway. Rule 26 covers water hazards and lays out the options for you. It’s important to realize that there must be “reasonable evidence” that your ball is lost in the hazard before you can proceed under Rule 26. If it is unclear whether your ball is lost inside or outside of a hazard, then you must proceed under Rule 27 and proceed under penalty of stroke and distance. The best
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