Mustang Rambles

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Mustang’s Golf Tips:

1. I start by standing fairly erect with my feet together, the ball centered, and my club head turned at about 15 degrees facing to my left.
2. I then move my left foot six to eight inches to the left.
3. The, I move my right foot four inches to the right and drop it back so the heel is farther back than the heel of my left foot.
4. Finally, point the toe of my right foot from 45 to 90 degrees to the right, depending on how much control I have of my body that day. The less control, the greater the angle.
5. With my swing, I try to slowly turn my shoulders until my right shoulder is nearly behind me, then I swing, extending my arms, and trying to throw the club head straight down the fairway.

When it is all done correctly, I get about a 210 yard drive with a good draw.

Things I have to watch out for:

1. turning my shoulders to provide power which causes a pull or toe-hit
2. snatching my arms into my body which causes a weak push-slice, or conversely, a scuffed, muffled dink shot to the left.
3. trying to power my club through the ball which usually causes me to fall back on my right foot and gives me a strong slice out of bounds.

Things I have learned and repeatedly forgotten:

1. All my life I’ve been a “wrestler, lineman, power lifter” type of athlete. That is most of my strength has always been in my torso and legs. This doesn’t help a bit in hitting the golf ball further. It is my main nemesis.
2. Upper body strength, shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands are the important part of length off the tee.
3. When you tie the upper body strength with a smooth, easy, natural turn and leg drive, you will have success.
4. Success will come with a natural rhythm, that smooth swing, and a calm and easy mind.
5. The worst enemy you have on the golf course is your emotions. They destroy the ability to do all the things I’ve just mentioned.

I re-remembered a very vital point in pitching and chipping. Lately, I’ve been sculling or chunking my pitches and chips. It has been very frustrating. On the 15th hole today, after chunking two consecutive shots, I remembered to put my weight on my left foot! apparently, with my left hip hurting, I had gotten away from that simple fundamental. Once I began to do that again, things began to look up.

the main fix I ended up with was putting the ball more directly beneath my eyes. That helped taking the loop out of my back swing and I was putting better by the time I finished. Such a little thing, making sure the ball is directly beneath your eyes, can really make a difference. It is incredible how slowly you can move away from a proper stance into an insidious error like I have done.

anger will screw up your game far beyond reasonable expectations.

Keeping your head very still through the putting follow-thru probably helps more than anything in improving your putting.

I’ve mentioned the importance of chipping before. On my course, many of the greens are small and the forty foot putt is usually impossible. This means many approach shots don’t land on the greens and I have to chip them close. Here’s how important chipping is: Out of the last nine rounds I’ve played, I had 25 2-putt pars and 33 1-putt pars. That’s nearly four shots per round if I had 2-putted all my pars. Practice that chipping from a variety of lies, until your hands get the feel for your technique, club, and grass/rough density.

Lesson learned (again!) was that the risky shot is usually the stupid shot. I tried one today from the woods and bounced it off two trees to another fairway. I should have pitched to the fairway and hit a 9 iron to the green, two putt for bogey and gone. However, I didn’t, got a two putt for a double bogey, the only one I had.

I’ve been missing my putts just a hair to the right of the cup. A buddy was watching and said that I was peeking just as I struck the ball. Apparently, this opens my clubface just enough to miss the cup.

I’ve been starting to push/fade my tee and long iron shots lately. Analyzing my swing, I’ve found that my left arm is taking over. This inhibits the hands from turning through the shot, and the occasional flying left elbow leaves the clubhead wide open. My personal swing requires reliance and focus on my right shoulder and right hand.

Had a cold this week. Fairways hit is up to 10 and 8 basically because I felt weak, so I brought my feet closer together and shortened my backswing. Funny thing is in hitting more fairways, I didn’t sacrifice distance.

Nothing much to talk about except on short irons I’ve begun to practice a technique that a pro showed me once. Instead of focusing on the ball, I focus on a spot immediately in front of the ball. This allows a better ball first strike with the club head delivering better line and distance. Seems to work for now.

One thing that has really given me confidence in my putting and chipping is by relaxing my hands so that I barely hold on to the club. The looseness gives me a better feel and the ball stays on line much better. It especially helps on the long curvy side-hill putts.

While I’m getting closer to the greens, I’m still not hitting them in regulation (only two today). But, I am chipping and putting very well and it is saving my game. How many times do I have to say it? Practice your chipping and putting.

I’ve started writing a large “RRS” on my ball to remind me of: “Relax, Right Shoulder (turn), Slowly”. This has resulted in better iron play and better woods and driver. The Relax has also helped my putting.

Remember the old adage of: “98% of putts that are short don’t go in.”? Well, without thinking, I made this observation the other day: “When looking for your tee shot, it is never farther than where you find it, and is always shorter than where you are looking.”

This has increased my distance and accuracy: Relax, and swing easy but firmly. It could make a big difference in your game.

For heavier golfers, face 45 degrees towards the target before you swing. It opens up your body while leaving your feet square and has been working pretty well.

Point to remember, know your clubs, and know how to hit them differently than normal. They are actually very versatile if you work with them.

I guess it’s the time of year to keep the neck-cooler iced up and sopping wet. When you get older like me, you’ve got to watch yourself. Keep cool, drink plenty of non-alcoholic fluids, and ice-down your head and neck every so often.

Every shot deserves a firm, determined swing. If you ease up, you’ll screw up.
Every time I tried to hit an easy shot straight down the center, my hands finish earlier than my clubhead, thus opening up the shot to a push-fade and the trees. If I hit a determined shot, much better ball flight and direction. If I try to kill it, pull-hook at best. So go ahead and hit the ball, just don’t try to get an extra twenty yards. Just hit it firm. The club will take care of the rest.

Keep your swing firm. By this, I mean that if you think your club may be a little too long, but you don’t want to take a shorter club and hit the crap out of it, don’t think you can laze your way through the swing. Be sure to take a firm, solid swing and complete the follow-through. Too often, I’ll choke up on the grip a bit, and then hit too easy, usually hitting the ball off of the toe or to the right with little power. In any event, even when it goes directly at the pin, it’ll never get there, and rarely ever gets to the green. As to the shorter club you want to swing like Attila the Hun’s battle ax, that shot rarely works in distance or direction. If it does work consistently, then you should be hitting it instead of the longer club. If it only works once a week, then you’re blowing a lot of shots. Remember, any shot deserves the respect of a firm swing.

Watch the old folks who have played the course a thousand times, they know all the unorthodox tricks for taming the course.

Why do we try new things on the course instead of at the practice range?  The answer is obvious.  When we sign in to the course, our brains flow out through the pen or pencil onto the paper. They don’t return until we sign the scorecard.

The trick? I played with the best player we have, and I watched him hit. Every shot, his back is good and straight. I began to remember how many articles I’ve read about keeping the back straight so you pivot your swing better. Remember when I told you about SYBO? Stick Your Butt Out? I had forgotten about it, but am now using it on every shot. It is working!

My pitching wedge has been giving me trouble, along with the other short irons. I’ve begun to push them out to the right, often missing the green. After looking at what was going on, I’ve found that no matter how hard I try, I sometimes bring the club down a little bit from the outside. This causes my hands to open just a little and the ball, coming straight off the open face, goes right. When this happens on the course, I’ve been able to fix this by simply closing the face of the club about ten degrees. I find it is better to accommodate my natural swing with little fixes on the course rather than try major fixes on the course. Major changes belong on the practice tee, don’t mess with your swing on the course.

Putting hint number 833, or however many it is. I made a change to my putting style that seemed to help. I play the ball farther away from me, maybe 14-16 centimeters further out. Not sure of why it helps, but my putting is much better.

Putting still sucks, but iron shots are betting better. I’ve been trying to relax my grip a little and have found that the hands turn better when they have a softer grip. It is a bit disconcerting when chipping with soft hands, I get more loft, but more power too. Another reason to practice.

However, I did go to the putting green and tried a fix on the putting.  Today, I opened my stance widely and played the ball off the inside of my right foot.  This seemed to give me a better view of the cup and I had 12 putts on the front nine and 16 on the back.  Seems that there is always something going wrong and a new way to fix it is always popping up.

It occurred to me one day that the lowest round I ever had, a 77, was hit using a TiTech “Distance Women” ball that I had scrounged out of my wife’s bag one day when I was out of my own.  Apparently, the lower compression is good for my senior swing.

My left hand is moderately strong and my right hand smothers my left thumb and is on top of the club. It helped me get more distance and better accuracy today.
I’ve begun to believe what we all have been told. Relax during the swing, don’t kill it. Here the problem is how fast to swing that relaxed swing: too easy and your hands never get through the ball; too hard and you are not relaxed anymore. I’m also working on bringing the club back to the ball on the same path I took it away from the ball. Pretty simple stuff, but easy to forget.

Long grass on the green means a firm putt to the back of the cup.

There was a study made in UK about the perfect golf swing. It included two tips:

One tip is to alter the angle of the chin. According to the professor “the secret of a good technique is to point the chin a little way behind the ball before lifting the club”.

He also says that the golfer should try to hit the ball keeping both elbows near to each other and as close to the body as possible.

Three ways to lessen the grip of your right hand on the putter thus avoiding last second tightening of your grip and the consequent opening of the club face are:

1. Just relax your right hand and let it go along for the ride.
2. Curl your ring and little fingers into the palm of your hand so they have no contact with the club.
3. Hold the putter with just the finger tips of the right hand.

These tips will help you maintain a clean putting stroke at the hole.

We tend to look up most when we have a difficult shot or one we rarely have to hit. This is based on the psychological need to affirmation. We need to see how well we did on the shot. Unfortunately, we usually try to look before the shot is completed. On difficult or rare, or that “trick” shot you must have, the secret to success is to keep you eye on the ball until the follow through brings your head up. Don’t PEEK!

The most difficult shot in golf is the next shot after a great drive. Focus on hitting the ball, not the shot.

I’ve discovered on my putting that I was beginning my putts with a slight hip turn that was throwing the putts off line. I’ve corrected that by concentrating on a perfectly still body below the shoulders. This has also helped my chipping.

If you are beginning to miss putts just a little to the right, you are probably tightening your grip just before you strike the ball. This tightening is done with the ring and little finger of your right hand in a normal grip. One fix on this is to curl those two fingers into the palm before you grip the putter with your thumb and first two fingers. This keeps those two fingers from messing up your putting stroke.

Slow greens can really be the death of your calm cool demeanor. When putts consistently on track die a few feet or a few inches from the cup, you know that the greens are beating you. Not only are they slower and take more power to make the putt, but the grass may grow irregularly and a “touch” putt may take a detour on the way to the lip. One thing to remember on slow greens, you have to be firm in the back of the cup or the ball may wander around on you.

I’ve been having real trouble with my long irons and fairway woods lately. I’ve pulled a bunch, sliced a few, and shanked a couple. Having had difficulty figuring it out, I finally stumbled on my error. I wasn’t taking the club away from the ball by rotating my shoulders; I was merely lifting my arms which put them way out of line. When I start my take-away with my shoulders, I get much better distance and direction. Now, this is a problem I’ve had all my life so it creeps up on me when I’m concentrating on other things. I hate to write notes, but this may be worth a little post-it note on the windshield of my golf cart, or I may invent a letter sequence, such as “SYBO” which means, “Stick Your Butt Out” which actually straightens my back for a cleaner swing pivot. Maybe I’ll go with “RSS!” which will stand for “Rotate Shoulders, Stupid!”

The thicker the fairway grass, the lower the loft of the iron used for pitching. I’ve also switched to a gap wedge when the ball is sitting cleanly on thick grass. While this is more pleasing to the eye, it is not as accurate as a low pitch and run.

Played golf yesterday and today, shot a 89 and an 85. Had 30 putts one day and 26 today with only one green in regulation and only 5 fairways each day. What does that tell you? If you’re not practicing your chipping and putting, you’re not going to improve your game!

The technique that seems to be helping me, is to really strengthen the right hand grip, so much so that the right palm faces upward and the right elbow is open to the sky. Seems awkward at first, but doesn’t really affect the swing except for forcing the right elbow to stay close to the body.

Don’t push yourself too fast after an illness when you are as old as I am.

If you are not practicing those bump and runs, chips, and putts, you are needlessly adding strokes to your game.

Separating my hands on my putting really helped. I moved my right hand down the shaft and placed my index finger on the shaft. This caused me to used my right hand for the direction and speed. Result: 25 putts for the day.

What did I learn today? Same two-stroke penalty I’ve learned before. I’ve fallen for this before by being lazy. Make sure you check the ball and see your markings before assuming it’s yours. Just because it is a ball lying where you ball should be doesn’t make it your ball. If you hit it, 2 stroke penalty.

The best golfer I know on our course gave me a great tip today. I’ve always had trouble with uphill lies. Today, after watching me blow one into the trees on the right, he suggested that when having an uphill lie, I should put 80% of my weight on the uphill foot, swing easy and follow through. I’m going to try that one out next time I’m on the course.

A good friend of mine recently had his hip replaced. A confirmed golfer, he was anxious to get back on the course. He worked hard on his physical rehab. As soon as his hip felt well enough, he borrowed my Medicus 5-iron to use for practice. Two days later and two weeks earlier than the doctor expected, he was back on the course. Important points: Work hard at rehab, practice swinging easy, play easy.

Usually, when my swing goes bad, it is a simple matter of not following through. Before each shot, practice your follow-through swing one time. Then concentrate on the follow-through. You’ll find that more balls stay in the fairway and more of them will go farther.

During the AT&T broadcast today, the announcers mentioned several times one of the standard tips on putting; one I had forgotten. The tip is simple: have the same practice stroke as the stroke you plan to hit the ball. Don’t practice the stroke harder, or softer, than what you plan to use to putt the ball in the cup. Don’t fool your body by practicing one speed, then trying to hit another. Simple, basic, but easy to forget.

When putting on a new course, be sure to walk around the hole viewing the putt from all sides. It won’t take long and you may see the break with a better perspective.

The right clubs are absolutely necessary, but the right swing for the clubs you own is vital.

You putt better when you have a relaxed right hand that has little pressure on the putter, just enough to stay along for the ride.