Yin and Yang

I'm only recently appreciating balance. Not only in the golf swing - but in everything. I was always a pretty black and white guy - I looked at balance as wishy-washy. But ... I'm starting to understand the reason for balance: winter/summer, cold/hot, hyper/mellow, left/right, etc.
Let's relate balance to the golf swing. I see the left hand as the control hand - sort of the robot of the golf swing. The right hand is the feel hand - sort of the artist of the golf swing. The left hand needs to be in control to allow the right hand to do his job. When I was a young man, I had a totally right handed golf swing. I hit the ball far and hit a lot of really cool shots ... I was also inconsistent and could shoot any number low or high. Then, as I got older, I began to focus on my left hand. My game became much more in control. But, I went too far focusing on the left hand. In fact, I took my right hand out of my swing. My swing began to lose power and I even began to lose feel. As my game got worse, I focused even more on my left hand ... not pretty.
So, here's what I'm now doing: I'm taking the club back with my left hand and hitting the shot with my right hand. I don't mean totally left on the backswing and totally right on the downswing ... but definitely more left than right on the back and more right than left in the hitting zone.
Bobby Jones once said that he felt he was "freewheeling" as hit went through the ball ... that's a great expression and definitely a right handed feel ... Jones also consciously took the club back with his left hand.
I'm even trying to do this with the putter.

The Golf Swing

Blogging can be addictive ... I'm pretty obsessive, so look out. We have to talk about the golf swing. At the moment, I'm in Beaufort, SC - been here for a week. Probably played more golf this week than I did last summer. I play quite a bit with my neighbor - an ex-Marine who's really gotten into golf. So this neighbor is always reading about the golf swing and asking me questions. He gets frustrated because much of what he reads contradicts itself - which it does ... and here's why: Golf instruction needs to be understood in the phases or evolution of the golfer's swing. What might be great advice for an expert, can be terrible advice for a beginner. But, you say "aren't fundamentals true for all players?" Yes! But, golf instructors don't agree on what are fundamentals. Let's start at the beginning: most people are poor golfers because of one of two things (or both) 1.) They want to scoop the ball up into the air. 2.) They pick up the club and smash down into the ball. Ironically, they scoop iron shots and smash down with the driver off the tee - they would be much better off scooping tee shots and smashing down on iron shots. The expert player doesn't have these problems - what he's looking for is a more controlled swing. But, the suggested ways to tighten up the expert's swing are usually the worst advice to the average player who needs to free up and develop his swing. Most people need to learn to make MORE of a weight shift and MORE of a turn. They also need to learn to keep their wrists firm on chip shots and learn to rotate their wrists on full shots. Average players also have to learn to swing inside-out. Expert players already make a good weight shift and a good turn and rotate their wrists on full shots and swing inside-out ... they are usually working on toning down those actions so that they are more in control. Thus, golf instruction has to be fitted as to where the golfer is at in terms of his evolution. And you can see why so often "tips" are not beneficial.

Golf Courses

A recent survey by GOLF WORLD magazine listed the PGA Tour players' top ten courses ... I was pleasently surprised. They picked the older, shorter, classic courses - the courses where you have to hit shots - not just bomb it and make some putts. Number one was Augusta National - maybe obvious, but still a great pick. Number two was Harbour Town - very surprising to me - I love Harbour Town, it's short for a Tour course and has little greens, and you have to work the ball - you can't just slug it. From there it's: Riviera, Pebble Beach, Colonial, Muirfield Village, Shaughnessy, Aronimink, Innisbrook, and Congressional.
That's great sign for the future of golf. Very often Tour players design courses because course owners want to use their famous names - so if these guys value the good courses, hopefully we'll see more quality courses in the future.