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The Weekend Golfer

Technology Improvements Benefit Those Who Sell Products
Feb 18, 2007 - Win with Linknet >>> Ai Miyazato - License our unique Japanese images for editorial/commercial use or buy prints. Nicklaus urges golf ball to be "rolled back" - There's a very interesting article by Jack Nicklaus in the March issue of Golf Digest called "I've Been Thinking." One of the points he usually makes in articles like this is that, in his opinion, the modern ball goes too far and has changed the game for the worse. As he says in this article, "My greatest concern, because I believe it has the most effect on the most parts of the game, is the golf ball." According to Nicklaus, after about 60 years in which the game (and equipment) stayed pretty much the same, in the 1980s and 90s the game of golf started to change dramatically. In the 80s it was the introduction of metal headed drivers and "woods", and in the 90s it was changes in golf ball technology. Both changes let players hit the ball farther. Golfers at all levels like to have their egos stroked, but the truth is, a guy like Fred Funk does not add 30 or 40 yards to his drives by working out or by improving his swing. These increased distances are mostly a result of "technology" changes. It is a familiar refrain, but for guys like Nicklaus who design courses this has meant the classic old courses aren't long enough anymore. We lesser mortals have come to take these ongoing "improvements" for granted because we think it levels the playing field between good players and not-so-good ones -- it makes us think we can become better golfers by simply buying new clubs or using a different ball. The irony is that just the opposite has happened. It is a well-known fact that high handicap players do not get the same benefit out of technology improvements as do better players. While a pro might be able to hit different balls different distances, your average hacker doesn't see these increases because he or she doesn't have a consistent enough swing and can't generate the club head speed required to take advantage of the new balls. It is a bit different with clubs, since larger metal heads and game improvement irons mean fewer duffed shots. But I suspect this advantage is again over-estimated for higher-handicap players. For a bogey golfer playing a 380 hard hole driving the ball 200 yards rather than 180 still won't produce very many pars. Why? Because he still can't make the 180 yard approach shot. So he's just as far ahead using a 5 iron off the tee. So technology improvements have actually widened the gap between the pros and the schmos. And to add insult to injury courses are now being made tougher and longer to accommodate the 5 or 10% of golfers who are "big hitters." At the root of the issue is the way golf is driven by marketing at all levels from recreational to professional. The inability of the golfing poobahs at the USGA and R&A to control the "improvements" has meant that golf has become a consumption driven sport like no other. And the chance of this changing in the foreseeable future are slim to none.

Is the "Stack and Tilt" Swing Really That Radical?
stack and tilt swing, Andy Plummer, Mike Bennett The June issue of Golf Digest features a lengthy description of the so-called "Stack and Tilt" swing being promoted by golf coaches Andy Plummer and Mike Bennett. In a classic overstatement, the author of the article, Peter Morrice, says "Their secret...contradicts almost everything being taught in the game today." But is it really that different? The most significant difference (as far as I can tell) with the "Stack and Tilt" swing is that it advocates keeping your weight on your front foot in the backswing. In other words it does not encourage the "weight shift" that almost everybody talks about when taking the club back. The result is what almost looks like a "reverse pivot" at the top with the head and spine tilted much more towards the target than in the typical modern swing (TMS). The differences are subtle. For one thing with the STS (Stack and Tilt Swing) the back leg does not remain flexed as in the TMS. If you look at the photos featured in the article you can see that when the club is at the top of the swing (p.122), there is almost a straight line running thru the back leg along the torso neck and head. And this line is angled about 10 degrees towards the target. In other words, the front sided of the body is "stacked" above the front foot, and the back side of the body is "tilted" towards the target. For a comparison look at the photo of V.J. Singh's swing on page 43 of the same issue (Golf Digest.) At the top of his swing his weight is "stacked" (more or less) over his back leg, and his torso is (more or less) perpendicular to the ground. While this may sound radical if you have been listening to the constant self-assured chatter from most of today's golf coaches, teachers, magazines and television channels, the fact is, there has always been an alternative school of thought that has questioned the simplistic "weight shift" idea. Look at these photos, for instance, of John Anselmo (one of Tiger's early teachers,) Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods. Hogan clearly does not "post up" over his back leg. Or look closely at this video of the 1930s swing of Bobby Jones. He does not shift his weight to the back. Nor does he shift it to the front. He remains centered over the ball. Still, there are some aspects to the STS that are of special interest to me, since I have experimented with all of them in the past. The first is the idea of keeping your weight forward, on your front foot, and pressing into the front foot as you take the club back. To me this has always seemed like a good way to force a steeper approach to the ball and a way to eliminate topping the ball. It also results in a lower trajectory since you are effectively de-lofting the club face. Unfortunately I have found it puts more strain on the front knee, and in my case usually results in aggravating an old knee injury. The second has to do with the position of the back elbow and the flatter swing advocated by Plummer and Bennett. I'm not sure why a flatter, rounder (less vertical) swing is part and parcel of the STS, but I suspect it has to do with the relative difficulty of getting the club going when you have your weight forward. So the idea is to maximize club head speed by taking advantage of the rotation of the torso. And third there is the intriguing idea of the "pelvic thrust" which the STS guys claim is necessary for a couple of interesting mechanical reasons. The most important reason is that since one's weight and shoulder position are forward, the approach to the ball will be significantly steeper than normal. In order to "shallow out" the swing you have to whip your hips around and thrust your lead hip up and towards the target. This makes you feel like you are almost jumping up and striking the ball while on your toes. Have you seen those photos of Natalie Golbus or Sergio, or a younger Gary Player? That's what they're talking about. Like I said, for most of us these will seem like very subtle differences. But if you actually try this swing you should find that it feels quite different. The biggest difference in your game will probably be fewer thin hits. But for me it tends to result in pushes, especially with the longer clubs. I also find it more physically taxing - requiring more body contortions - and I don't think that can be a good thing.

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Majority of Golf Clubs Now Made in China
Mar 10, 2007 - Linknet Golf Blogs Golf Digest article looks at dominance of China in golf club manufacturing - There's an excellent article in the April 2007 issue of Golf Digest that takes a close look at the extent to which golf club design and manufacturing has be virtually taken over by the Chinese. Although low wages and a huge, hard working work force are important factors in this incredible shift, it's much more than just cheap labour that sends these manufacturing projects to China. It's the ability of the Chinese to consolidate massive capabilities in a few large factories, most of which are located within a few hundred miles of Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the process these companies have developed manufacturing techniques that speed up the process of going from concept to finished product. And at the same time the quality of the end product has been improved. That makes it possible for major manufacturers to bring out new products more often; and for "boutique" companies to produce their own distinctive lines of clubs. The Chinese can take a concept or rough 3D model and turn it into a finished club within days. Or a small company without its own design team can start with "open" designs and put their own distinctive graphics and colour schemes on them. To a large extent this has happened within just a few years. For instance, a California company, Coastcast Corporation, that was making a million+ titanium heads in 2004 was out of business two years later. Virtually all that business went to China. As a result, of the roughly 45 million golf clubs sold every year about 75% have some Chinese content. Pretty amazing.

Golf Fitness Will Make A Difference to Your Game
Oct 17, 2006 - Internet Golf Review >>> Onlinebutik med prisgaranti - Salg af styketræning- & fitnessprodukter, herunder proteindrik, energibars, kreatinpulver samt træningstilbehør så som bælter og handsker. Klik ind og se det store udvalg. Golf Workouts Can Transform Your Gameby Mike Pedersen, Golf Fitness Expert I?m sure by now you?ve heard most of the professional players; both men and women actively participate in golf workouts. It?s no secret. But why then do most amateur golfers ignore this? Is it because it seems like work? Or, does the thought of actually breaking a sweat get you tired already? Either way?the proof is in the bag. The number one player in the world, Vijay Singh, does his golf workouts all the way through Sunday of each tournament. Does it look like it?s hurting his game? I don?t think so. Back in 1997, a young, very athletic golfer came on the professional scene and blew everyone away. I think you know who I?m talking about. [...] Read more!

No Backswing Backswing
I've seen this approach to pre-setting the club in the 3/4 backswing position. It makes a lot of sense to me. If pre-setting the bat is OK for baseball players why isn't it for golfers? I think it's because golfers think there is some magic in the path of the club going back - and so many golf teachers reinforce that (erroneous?) idea. Obviously what matters is where the club ends up at the top of the swing and how you bring it down into the ball. As Jim Suttie explains, most swing problems actually originate in the way a golfer takes the club back. Since we seem to think it is one seamless motion from beginning to end, how we take it back is directly relevant to where we end up at the top and how we bring the club down to the ball. The "no swing backswing" tries to get rid of the variables at the beginning of the swing and get you ready to swing from the common position that (almost) everybody agrees you should be in - the 9 o'clock position (to use Dave Pelz's terminology). This "no swing" approach also shortens the total length of the backswing by encouraging you to hit from about a 10:30 position. "Just pump and hit" as Suttie tells his demo-guy Scott Sanderson. The problem - and you can see it with Sanderson - is that until you're really used to doing this you're not quite sure how to get the swing going. You can see him hesitate as though he's trying to figure out how to start. There was an article in Golf Digest by David Leadbetter about a year ago proposing a similar routine. But that seemed to get little response and seems to have been forgotten by Leadbetter. You can see more articles and commentary about the "no backswing backswing" here.

A Bit of Success is a Good Thing
Last night Judy and I headed out to Glencairn to hit some balls on the range. It was a beautiful evening and when we got there around 7 there were only 3 or 4 other ball strikers going at it. This was pretty unusual. Judy has never been much for hitting balls on the range. But on Sunday after our family outing at Blue Springs we stuck around for a while on the range there. She started having really good results with her driver - a recent addition to her compliment of clubs - so we just kept on hitting until they kicked us off the range. Last night it was more of the same. We kept hitting until all the balls were gone and even went out into the range and hit some back a couple of times. Judy doesn't get to play much - only 6 or 7 times a year for the past few years - so it always takes her a while to get back into the groove. But I'm always impressed by her swing. Teaching her the subtleties of the golf swing has been a pet project of mine for quite a few years and it is interesting to see how she has progressed. These past few days working with the driver she has taken a couple of giant steps forward, and given her a new awareness of some of the potential. I guess that explains her eagerness to get out there and hit some more.

New Golf Course Photos Posted
Oct 13, 06 - The Weekend Golfer - >>> Everything Golf - From practice tee to green, everything to master your golf game. >>> I've made a point of taking fall photos of some of the golf courses we've been playing the last few weeks. You can see them at Rick's Golf Course Features. See Power Listings Plus to promote your website.

Playing in the Dark
Thursday night is the beginning of the weekend for our little golfing fraternity. Fritz and I usually head out right after work and try to get going by about 5:45. We can usually get in 18 - depending on who's in front of us - but almost always we're coming down 18 in the semi-darkness. I've been doing the late afternoon thing for years and have played lots of 18s in the semi-darkness, so have become pretty good at controlling my swing so it is more or less straight, listening for where it lands, and then marching down the darkened fairway until the little white thing emerges from the black. I can usually feel whether I've pulled it, pushed it or, heaven forbid, sliced it. When you play in the semi-darkness you learn that a slice or hook is usually the result of swinging too hard. So backing off on your swing is the first prerequisite for actually being able to find the ball after you hit it. Yesterday it didn't work out for some reason. I had a pretty good round going and when we hit #17 I thought "No problem." At this course 17 is a fairly short par 5 that I've birdied a few times. It requires a drive over the main entrance roadway into the course, and when I hit my drive Joe said "It's down the middle." OK, I thought, we're in business. But when we got out there it was nowhere to be found, and I had no idea which side it should be on. The fescue at Glencairn makes it almost impossible to find if you don't know where to look. The same thing happened with my next shot. It felt like I pulled it out of the primary rough and it went zinging across to the other side. Never to be found again. Too dark to see where it went out. #18 worked out a bit better. My drive just cleared a sod-walled bunker and since I was still about 180 out and had to clear two "burns" to hit a green I couldn't even see, I just hit an easy 9 to plunk it between the burns. It didn't sound too good when it landed, but sure enough when we got down there it was right where I thought it should be. A sandy to the green and I was finished. By then the sprinklers were on so we just left it there on the green for the next lucky guy...

Why Golf is Better Than Other Sports
Here's a long list of reasons why golf is "better" than other sports. Technorati Profile

Could Grow to Like Hybrid
When we were in Dallas late in February for some early power golf I stopped in at the Golfsmith store and bought a few components. First on the agenda was a 52 degree wedge -- something I haven't had for about five years. Yes, I've had that famous 8 degree gap between the PW and the SW, and I felt it was time to plug it. Then there was the hybrid issue. I've been watching a couple of my buddies hit their hybrids for a few months, and decided it was about time to take the plunge. I'm one of those guys who actually likes hitting the long irons, but it's something you have to do regularly or you really lose confidence in them. I suspect it is a lot easier to just pick up a 19 degree hybrid once or twice a round and hit it nice and solid. I finally got around to assembling these two clubs before our weekend rounds last week. And then had a chance to hit them quite a bit on the weekend. I really like the look and feel of both of them, and so far they've been working really well for me.

Golf in Marbella Spain - Golf Weather All Year Round
Nov 21, 2006 - Golf Courses >>>> Hotels in Marbella - We are the true experts in Marbella Hotels, Apartments & Villas. Special offers. Local Service. Book online now. Visit Marbella, in the heart of this world famous golf valley. The city of Marbella is surrounded by more than 150 of the best golf courses in the world. The region has all the facilities, hotels and services that golfers have come to expect in a top notch golf destination. The Costa del Sol in Spain has more golf courses than anywhere else in Spain. Some of these golf courses are among the most prestigious golf courses in the world. Every year, thousands of golfers visit Marbella for golf holidays and golf excursions. Professional golfers also compete in international tournaments hosted by the surrounding golf courses. Marbella is truly one of the most exciting golf destinations in the world. It also boasts tremendous scenery, fantastic beaches, several museums and historical sites.

Rustico Resort in South Rustico PEI
Sept 4, 06 - Linknet Travel Golf Swing Improvement - Only 1% of Golfers know this... When I found out I knocked 30 shots off my average round of Golf! >>>> As reported in a previous post, this summer Judy and I visited Prince Edwared Island and Cape Breton (in Nova Scotia) to play some of the highly rated courses in that neck of the woods. While in PEI we stayed at the Rustico Resort -- a unique golf resort where the no frills rooms are clean and roomy and very reasonably priced. And the golf is free when you stay at the resort! Unfortunately we only had time for one round on the home course because we had planned junkets to Crowbush Cove, and Dundarave. The course was a lot of fun and in awfully good shape with thousands of trees and the kind of perennials you are likely to find in your own flower gardens. Both the resort and the golf course are the personal projects of the resort owners, John and Martha Langdale, who purchased the property in 1980 when it was little more than a potato field with a few ramshackle buildings. If you are considering a trip to PEI and especially if you want to combine it with a golfing excursion, this is a perfect place to stay. The resort has its own private beach along with a swimming pool and tennis courts. It is within minutes of many top notch restaurants, a number of which specialize in lobster dinners. The resort is located near South Rustico, less than 30 minutes from Charlottetown, 15 minutes from the beaches on the north shore, and about 20 minutes from Cavendish, famous for its Anne of Green Gables exhibits. Here is an interesting article featuring Rustico Resort Linknet Website Promotions

Merry Christmas
Dec 25/06 - Golf Travel >>> Kamagra Generic Viagra Cialis UK >>> Merry Christmas! In spite of it being one of the least pleasant and wettest falls I can remember, it has also been one of the warmest Decembers for a long, long time in southern Ontario. Our previous record for a legitimate round on a real course had been Dec 13, played a few years back. But this year I was out on Dec 16, and could have played on Dec 23 but felt a little bit under the weather. In some recent years Judy and I found ourselves in Florida over the Christmas holiday and that was always the occasion for an early morning round at Port Charlotte GCC. Since the course was officially closed on Christmas there were no carts -- a pretty rare occurrence in Florida -- and nobody to take your green fees. Maybe next year.

Backyard Practice Screws Up My Swing
golf swing, golf practice nets I've mentioned in a couple of posts that a few weeks ago I started using a backyard net for working on my swing. Since the net is only about 8x8 you can't really use anything other than a low lofted club, otherwise you end up hitting balls onto the road and into neighbours' yards. Also, unless you're OK with chewing up your grass you can't really use a lot of irons. So I'd been using it for 15 or 20 minutes a day to work on some "improvements" to my driver swing. Well, the results showed up almost immediately. I pretty much lost my driver swing for two or three days. One round was particularly annoying. Fritz and I were visiting with a friend of his at a course I'd never played before. I didn't hit a fairway until the 9th hole. And it was very tentative for the rest of the round. The same thing happened the next day. And it wasn't a coincidence. I already knew that hitting into a net can be misleading because you can't see the results of sidespin. Even if it feels and sounds good, that's no guarantee it isn't going to be hooking or fading or slicing when you're on the course. Well sure enough after about 6 or 7 sessions of working on "improvements" I was hitting terrible weak fades. After a short session on a real range I threw out the changes, stopped using the practice net, and things were more or less back to normal. So what good is the practice net? I'm not sure.

Golf Travel