Lately my putting has been very good. I’ve been sinking a lot of putts in the 10-15 foot range. It’s a range that I struggled with most of the season but I’ve figured out some things that work for me.

Speed

I work on speed with a few simple speed drills. The first drill is from Zen Golf by Dr. Joseph Parent. It involves putting to the fringe. I pick a spot where I’m between 10-15 feet from the fringe and putt to it. As the putt is rolling to the fringe I try to feel whether it’s going to be short, long or right on. Is amazing how much this begins to tune your sense of speed. I do this for a few minutes then move on to the next drill.

A straight line

Recently focusing on this thought has greatly improved my accuracy. I try to think of all my putts as straight line putts.

Obviously not every putt travels in a straight line. But they have to come off the putter face in a straight line. The thought is to pick my line, then allow gravity and the green contours to bring the putt to the hole.

I started doing this because I realized that I was compensating for the break. That would result in pulled or pushed putts. I even make the straight line shorter in my mind’s eye and constrain it to 6 inches in front of the ball and six inches behind it.

At first it felt a bit weird putting like this, but by trusting that gravity and the contours of the green would take the ball to the hole, these ideas have really simplified my putting stroke. One of the other benefits, besides making more putts has been that I’ve become a better green reader. I trust that the slope of the green and gravity will both do their jobs and it frees me up to hit a purer putt.

Give these ideas a try and let me know if they work for you.

The Vharness is a swing trainer with the goal of teaching anyone to swing like a pro.  The Vharness is endorsed by Rocco Mediate, who I think is a brilliant spokesperson for this product because of how well heconnects with average golfers.  He looks like a guy in your foursome.  But of course he has tremendous game.  His performance at Torrey Pines in the US Open made him a household name.  He plays what seems to be off the shelf game improvement clubs.  He doesn’t have the fluid easy motion of a Fred Couples, or the power of JB Holmes or Bubba Watson.  These reasons though make him ideal as a representative of this product because he, of all tour players, looks the most like an average Joe, and almost everybody can relate to him.

So does the Vharness achieve it’s lofty goal of teaching anyone to swing like a pro?  No, but it is an excellent swing trainer, and if used effectively especially with some guidance from an instructor it can really help the average golfer to feel their swing better.  Frankly I don’t think there is a single device that can teach anyone to swing like a pro.  Swinging like a pro requires coordination, talent, strength and flexibility.  Provided you have those things, with a good instructor and dedication you can learn to swing like a pro.  What I did find is that the Vharness can enable you to not only create a better swing, but really feel what it feels to swing better.

I have a number of swing trainers in my collection, and they all fulfill different purposes.  I’ve been using the Vharness for about a month.  I wanted to give it a full test before I wrote about it.  The Vharness is definitely different from my other swing trainers.  It gives me feedback that I never got from anywhere else and really helped me to understand and feel my swing better.  It almost acts as a sensation amplifier and you really feel what the club head, path and hands are doing.

One of the main objectives of the Vharness is to help you feel more connected. There are a number of ways to feel more connected that I’ve seen routinely taught. Most commonly is tucking a golf glove under one or both armpits depending on how you are trying to feel the connection. Recently we have been watching players like Sean O’Hair and Justin Rose tuck their sleeves into their armpits. Both are effective ways of feeling the connection.

The vharness approaches this concept from a different point of view.  Instead of feeling the connection through your armpits as in the other techniques you keep it by by focusing on keeping the “vcords” taut.  As you do your body naturally becomes more connected.  It feels like it is a less tense way of feeling it.

But the vharness takes it a few steps further. It naturally creates more width in the swing and keeps your hands more in front of you preventing you from getting stuck.  One of my major flaws in my swing is getting stuck.  Working with the vharness, this is dramatically improved, and with it so has my distance and accuracy.  The great thing about it for me, is that it really worked with the things I’ve been learning and working on, and it provides excellent feedback.

When ordering the vharness you’ll be asked some questions to have it properly sized for your your height and your clubs.  I find that it fits well on all clubs.  It is very easy to transfer from one club to the next and allows you to use it with all your clubs.  The more I use the Vharness the more I enjoy using it.  Give it a shot, I think you’ll like it too.

Learn more about it on their website.

It is amazing by how much Tour Pros are missing the fairway, but it doesn’t seem to cost them that many shots even with the new grooves.

The equipment may be more forgiving, but given the club head speeds these guys are generating, they require even more precision to hit them straight, or as Faldo said “the ball comes off sideways.”

How do you play?  Do you play bomb and gouge, or fairways and greens?

I don’t think that many of my friends who don’t play golf understand why I do play and love this game.  As Bagger Vance says:

What I’m talkin about is a game… A game that can’t be won only played…

Golf is a game that you can’t win.  Sure, you can win tournaments and bets.  You can win trophies, but you can’t ever master golf.  You can’t perfect golf.  You can experience perfect moments, but they are fleeting, they go as fast as they came.  And you never know when the next perfect moment is coming.  Golf, as many wise people have said, is in the journey.  The journey to get better, to feel those perfect moments and everybody has those.  They usually come at the end of a frustrating round when you’re ready to give up the game.  Each one of those moments keeps you coming back for more.

I had an experience recently that showed me a bit of what drives me in golf.  It seems unrelated but stick with me for a second.  I got one of those jewel puzzle games for my phone.  I’d play it here and there in either the normal mode or the timed mode.  I’d do my best and see where my scores ended up in comparison to all the other people that have this game.  Then I noticed it has an infinite mode.  I started playing the infinite mode and then I realized that no matter what I did in the game, I couldn’t lose.  The game wouldn’t end because it was infinite.  Right there, is where I lost interest, and I’m surprised the developer even put that mode in, because it almost made me not want to play in the other modes either.  But golf is different.

Well, it’s a good things there is no infinite game type for golf.  Because whether you are playing nine holes after work, or playing for the US Open, it’s still golf.  It’s you, the golf course, and your golf ball.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  There’s no guarantees.  You never know when you are going to stripe if down the middle.  You never know when a lucky bounce is going to put it inches from the hole.  Or when a perfect shot, hits a sprinkler and goes flying over the green.  You take the good, and you deal with the bad, and you try to do better.  Sometimes your best isn’t enough.  And sometimes, you do things you never thought possible.

I hope I play golf, like some guys I know, well into my 90s.  When I can barely walk, I’ll still be able to putt and chip.  And I’ll still love to hear the sound of the golf ball rattling in the hole.  And I’ll still love the feeling of a perfectly struck shot.  Me, the golf course, and a golf ball, going for a walk and playing a game that can’t be won.

Did their expectations do them in?

We saw the world’s number one player, struggle to his worst finish as a professional, while the number two player in the world was coping with a new kind of pressure, the chance to take the number spot away from Tiger Woods.

So why weren’t Tiger and Phil able to muster anything better than +7 and +8 respectively?  Was the course unfair?  Hunter Mahan shot a 64 on Sunday to win by two shots.  Goosen, Furyk, Harrington and Oosthuizen had good rounds in the mid 60s.  So I would say that the course was not unfairly setup.

I think two things happened.  It appeared that Mickelson became very technical. His swing wasn’t as fluid and powerful as he usually is.  And his putting was shaky at best.

I think Tiger phoned it in.  He had given up hope, he had lost his fight, and he just wanted to get out of there.

What’s interesting about the Tiger story for me is that he had felt that his game was where it needed to be.  He thought that he had found some keys to playing well again.  He also had a lot of confidence from the venue itself.  He had won 7 out of the last 10 times he played without finishing worse than 4th.  Given all those factors he came into the event expecting to contend, if not outright dominate.

Could Tiger’s expectations been his downfall?  Where they realistic based on the amount and the way he’s played this year?  Did he put pressure on himself in a way that he’s never really done?

Lesson learned

As a golfer who is working his game down to scratch (though I still have a way to go), I got a lot out of watching this event.  Surprisingly the lesson I came away with was to be kinder and more patient with myself.  If the world’s #1 and #2 players, can have days like those, why am I expecting so much of myself?  Why don’t I just play the game, shot by shot, and see where that takes me?

Recently I had worked really hard to prepare for my local city championship.  It was my first time qualifying for the event at the Championship division, meaning there was no handicap.  I prepared for several weeks, and felt my game was ready for the event.  I ended up playing some of my worst golf in recent memory in those two days and missed the cut by a wide margin, and although I can’t draw a direct comparison to what happened with Tiger and Phil, I believe I can learn from what I saw this week at the WGC.

It is frustrating to show up at the course without the game you know you are capable of.  It is even more frustrating when it is a tournament situation and you realize you just don’t have it that day.  How can you turn it around?  How can you post a good score, when you don’t have it, and how do you change what you are thinking so that you can change the experience?

Days like that happen to everyone.  If you come in with high expectations you automatically put more pressure on yourself.  But you can’t come into it with low expectations either.  I think one of the hardest things to do is to set aside your expectations and just play the game.

There’s a lesson in every shot

As I kept thinking about what the way Tiger and Phil played, for some reason I thought about that Rolling Stones song “You can’t always get what you want”.  I think that every round of golf, every shot has a lesson, “But if you try sometimes/you just might just find/you get what you need”.  I’m using that tournament experience as something I can learn from.  And just remember, it happens to everyone.  Be kind to yourself, stay patient, and good things are bound to happen when you get out of your own way.

Practicing bunker shots can improve your rhythm and tempo

Bunker play.  What comes to mind for you?  Does it fill you with fear?  Do you think, “how many shots will it take to get out”?

This is one of the areas that amateur golfers practice the least.  And it’s one area where the average golfer can really save a ton of strokes.  So practicing bunker shots can save you shots and has a number of extra benefits.

1. Bunker shots become much easier.
2. Lose the fear of being in a green-side bunker.
3. Help with rhythm and tempo.
4. Smooth out your swing.

The first two benefits are pretty obvious.  Practice from the bunker and not only will it get easier, but yes, you will lose the fear of being in a bunker.

The last two benefits are not obvious.  How could practicing bunker shots help with rhythm and tempo, and smooth out your swing?

The other day I decided to practice for one full hour hitting shots from the greenside bunker in the short game practice area at my local course.  It was an area I had neglected recently as I, for some reason, almost never end up in a greenside bunker.  I don’t know why that is, but it’s true.  Regardless, I wanted to become more comfortable with bunker shots.

As I practiced I realized something.  I have a fairly quick transition in my swing, when it gets too quick, I start losing accuracy and my ball striking degrades.  In the bunker,  too quick of transition led to bunker shots that were too fat or too thin where I caught too much ball.  I also felt on my good bunker shots, that the transition was just right, and I felt the forgiveness of the bunker really help smooth things out.

What most amateur golfers don’t realize is that a bunker shot has the most margin for error of basically any shot in golf.  You can hit the sand from 1 to 6 inches behind the ball and still have a reasonable result.  I noticed that when my transition was smooth, I hit beautiful shots out of the bunker that went high, landed soft, and spun to a quick stop.  Over the course of that hour, my bunker shots got better and better where I could land 6 to 8 out of 10 within a couple of feet of my intended target.  But the most powerful effect was the smoothness that I felt in the shots.  My swings out of the bunker felt so right.  The timing was good, the rhythm was great, and they just flowed.

After 1 hour of hitting bunker shots, I proceeded to practice chips, pitches and lob shots.  The tempo from the bunker stayed with me, and I hit some really great short game shots.

I think the main reason that bunker shots encourage such great rhythm is that you’re not actually trying to hit the ball.  You have an area of sand behind the ball that you want your sand wedge to enter, and like I said, you’re not actually trying to hit the ball.  So you are practicing 3/4 to half swings that are real shots but where you’re not hitting the golf ball, you’re hitting the sand, and this changes the focus.

I have found this to be a really great part of the game to practice because in the process of becoming a better bunker player, you’ll improve your rhythm and timing, which will help your overall game.

What I mean is that everyone’s “career” with golf, whether playing professionally or playing on the weekend with buddies goes though periods of highs and lows.  Whether it’s missing 5 or 10 cuts in row, or shooting 10 strokes above normal for your last 5 or 10 rounds, we all go through tough times trying to get that little white ball into the cup.  We all get into occasional slumps.

I’ve been on a bit of a slump myself.  After shooting some of my best rounds of the year several weeks ago, I have fallen into a deep fog, where it seems like I had lost all control of my golf ball.  We’ll at least until today, although the seeds of the discovery were sown a while back, but I’ll get to that shortly.

The slump seems to have come out of nowhere.  My last round before the slump was a 77.  I’m not yet a scratch golfer so 77 on a tough par 72 course from the back tees is just fine with me.  However when the slump started it began a downward slide in scores.  Before I knew it I had several 88s, a 90, and the dagger in my heart was 97 in the member member tournament yesterday.

Although I wasn’t sure how I would fix it, I firmly believe that I will.  I also know that I’m not the only golfer to have gone through slumps either.  Jack Nicklaus, Steve Stricker, David Duval, Davis Love III, Ian Baker-Finch and many more have gone through their share of slumps.  Steve Stricker came back from “no man’s land” to world #3.

How they fixed their individual slumps is another story, but knowing that even the worlds best players go through times like these, gives me hope that I can get my game together, and take it to even higher levels.

I also believe that whatever happens can be a blessing in disguise.  In my case, the slump made really dig deep and address some swing flaws.  I knew that I didn’t want this inconsistency any more and I became determined to find a way to fix it.

Last night, hours after coming home from the the worst score of the season at that tournament, I had a thought that turned into a deep examination of a flaw, what caused it, and how to make it go away.  I remember something that my coach Eben Dennis said to me in a discussion we had about Jamie Sadlowski.  The more I thought about that conversation, the more I realized he was right, although I still wasn’t sure what to do with that information.

It was a moment where I challenged a deeply held subconscious belief about the golf swing.  And as I worked with that thought, things began to click.

My major flaw had come into being a long time ago as I had decided that I was going to learn how to create big time lag.  Sure enough I learned how to create lag, but the way I did it, made it extremely timing dependent when it came to releasing it through the ball.  As Eben put it, I was “dragging the club head” through the finish.  This drag made it really difficult to square the club face at impact.  I also realized that this dragging result, was not the cause of my mis hits.  It was actually an effect of a different flaw.

I realized that if I wanted to play well and consistently, I need to address the root cause and not just band aid the effects.  I set out to discover the cause, and I believe that I have found it, at least as it pertains to my swing.

Something else interesting happened along the way.  If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’ve analyzed Rickie Fowler’s swing.  Well, I now believe that my previous analysis of his swing, was incorrect.  I was simply looking from the outside in, at what he was doing.  Well, the reason I bring this up, is that without trying to copy him, my swing seems to now have some of the same characteristics of his swing.  What’s more is that now I have a better sense of where his consistency comes from.

When I look at video of both swings together, side by side there are some pretty clear similarities, but there are also some major differences.  Now let me repeat this, I did not set out to copy or imitate Rickie Fowler’s swing.  It’s unconventional, and I think most golf teachers would steer clear of that, but there are some elements about it that work very, very well.

The main element about Rickie’s swing that I understand now, is that from start to finish, it never gets to a point where he has to “save it with his hands”.  He doesn’t really get stuck to where he needs to flip it or where’s going to block it (the way Tiger Woods often does).  In fact his whole swing is designed to bring the club head back to square at impact in an extremely efficient way.

I bring up the Rickie Fowler reference because as I watched video of my swing, it reminded me of Rickie’s but in my own way.  And like I said, I’m not trying to copy him.  I was just trying to find the most efficient way for me to bring the club head back to square at impact, and it’s probably just a coincidence that there’s any resemblance to his swing.

So how did this swing perform?

At home, I use the driving range on my dancin’ dogg simulator basically to look at two statistics: club face angle, and swing path.  From the day that I got the simulator, I always had a difficult time getting my face angle to square.   I would occassionally be able to do it.  The reason for that, is that the dragging effect I talked about above, made it very hard to square the face.  Recently it’s gotten somewhat better, where I could keep the face in the +2 to plus 5 degrees open.  With a path enough from the inside these allow for little draws, or baby fades.

With the changes that I made last night, and this morning, I was able to keep the face 0.0 to 0.7 degrees open, consistently.  This is essentially a square face.  That is a dramatic improvement.  You can imagine how shocked I was when I was able to do this 20 times in a row.  But I didn’t just want to take the simulator’s “word” for it.  So I went to the driving range to see if the results held up there too.

They did.  I don’t remember ever hitting the ball as straight as I did this morning.  And it just kept happening, ball after ball.  I believe that I will be out of my slump soon, and in a weird way, I have the slump to thank for this.  It got me to the point where I knew that what I was doing before, just was not going to work in the long run.  I knew I had to get to the root of the major flaw and fix it.  So, thank you Slump, you’re a great teacher in disguise.

The rough is truly punishing, the fairways are fast and the greens, well, it’s amazing these guys can keep it on there, and even more amazing when you see shots land softly.

In a sense it both magnifies their almost superhuman abilities, and yet it also shows them in ways that resemble the way we often feel as golfers.  I don’t often see tour players be so uncertain, careful, and vulnerable as they can be during this tournament.  And yet it also elevates them simultaneously.  Great shots are even more spectacular and magnificent because of the difficult conditions.

It does feel like golf as it should be.  I’m not saying that they should play open conditions every week, or that average golfers should be faced with open conditions.  But watching the PGA tour week in and week out, they can make the game seem too easy.  Then again TV coverage is normally skewed, showing the best players on the planet, on their best days.  One of the reasons I love watching them in person is that you can follow players who aren’t playing their best and you’ll see that even if they are spraying the ball (which tour players are capable of) they manage to score well.

Strategy

With the tough conditions at Pebble Beach, strategy becomes even more crucial.  It’s amazing to listen to players and their strategies because they are all different.  Phil Mickelson, in his news conference basically said that he wants to play defensively off the tee, so that he can be aggressive on his approaches to the greens.  Yet other players have talked about being more defensive, with the emphasis on making pars as the #1 priority.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how different strategies succeed.  This a tournament where missing it in the right place is crucial.

Ball Striking

Strategy is crucial but just as important is ball striking.  Fairways and greens are even more important.  Ball striking allows you to execute the strategy.  The firm greens at Pebble Beach will require absolutely precise ball striking in order to keep the ball on the green and have any shot at making par.

Watching the analysts on Golf Channel yesterday, I was amazed when I kept hearing that some greens are unhittable.  The 17th hole is like that when the flag is on the left.  Any shot from the tee that actually hits and stays on the green will have been hit absolutely perfectly.

Putting

I don’t think much needs to be said about putting as it is absolutely crucial to putt well in a US open.  Poa greens are tricky, especially for the players who did not grow up playing them.  The ball will bounce so putts need to be stroked solidly, but speed control on these fast greens will be absolutely crucial.  Good putting will save pars and bogeys.  But I’m sure we’ll see some examples of putting that will shock average golfers in all kinds of ways.

Richter Park is nestled in the hills of Danbury, CT.  It is within driving distance of New York City, but more likely played by the residents of Danbury, Fairfield County, and Westchester County.  A 6,744 yard layout from the back blue tees, Richter Park is not a monster in terms of length.  It is however, 6700 yards of great golf.  As the course winds around the hills it’s laid out on, elevation changes make club selection a somewhat tricky task.  Combine that with lightning fast, undulated greens (sometimes severely) and you get a fair but solid test of golf.  The slope of 133 seems low, as the course can certainly play more difficult than that.

Driving up Aunt Hack road toward the course, you pass the 9th hole on your right, then head into the parking lot.  The modest restaurant/bar and pro shop building set a welcome that can lull you into a sense of calm.  You’ll need that calm for the course as it it can quickly punish or reward you.  The course does lack a driving range which is it’s biggest drawback, as you need to have your A game if you want to score well here.  The practice putting green does however begin to prepare you for the test ahead.  It is fast and runs pretty close to the greens on the course.  It lacks many of the severe undulations you’ll face but you can at least get a sense of the speeds.  Richter Park has some of the fastest greens I’ve played in any public course Connecticut.  It’s not unusual to have your putt end off the green if you’re unlucky enough to leave yourself a speedy downhill putt.  On this course it is a must to leave your approach shots below the hole.

The course opens with a dog leg right par 4 down the hill into the valley.  Water is in play for long hitters down the right side of the fairway.  A fairway wood or driver (for the shorter hitters) leaves a fairly straightforward shot to the green.  Although not heavily protected, the bean shaped green is undulated and it pays to be in the right part of the green below the hole.  Two bunkers front left and front right guard the green from any shots that approach short and crooked.

Hole number two is a straightaway par 5 with water down the right side.  The kidney bean shaped green is surrounded by 4 large bunkers.  Richter Park has some of the nicest bunkers for a public course.  The sand is nice and white, and not too fluffy.  The hole is reachable in two by the longer hitters but beware those bunkers.  It can be easily played as a 3 shot par 5, and it’s nice to attack the pin with a wedge in your hand.

Hole number 3 is a short par 3 over water.  Club selection can be tricky depending on the wind.  The green is protected by water in front, and bunkers in the back left and back right.  The green is large, like many of the greens at Richter and slope quite a bit from back to front.

Hole number 4 is a challenging par 4.  The number 3 handicap hole is a dog leg right with a tricky drive.  Fairway bunkers on the left protect a wayward tee shot, but beware of going too far right and ending up out of bounds.  A flatter green is accessible after a good tee shot, but watch the winds as they can make club selection tricky.

Hole number 5 is a tough par 3 over water.  A three tiered green forces you to be on the right level if you want to have any chance of birdie on the hole.  When the pin is in the front of the green, you must be on the same level.  A putt from a tier up is almost impossible to stop and many players routinely putt off the green.

The sixth hole is a tricky par 4.  The ideal tee shot is roughly 220 yards up on the fairway right center.  Left is trouble as the fairway severely slopes left, and too long is trouble as well.  From the flat part of the fairway you’ll be left with roughly 175 yards to the green.  This is a tough hole, especially when the greens are really fast as you can’t run it up the fairway short of the hole.  A false front will leave you with a tough shot up to green if you’re unlucky enough to find it and roll down 10 to 20 yards below the level of the green.

The seventh hole requires a carry over water.  The carry is not severe but the dog leg right makes it a difficult hole to reach in two, as your second shot would be blind toward the well protected green.  The whole hole slopes to the left so any mishits that end up left can be in trouble.  Play it as a 3 shot hole and make accurate strikes and you can be rewarded with a birdie opportunity.

The 8th hole is a short par 4 that requires an iron off the tee to the an elevated fairway.  The green is fronted by a pond so don’t leave your second shot short.  It’s a fun and beautifully designed hole that will test your irons.

The 9th hole, with Aunt Hack Lane on your left is a short but uphill par 4.  The tee shot will land somewhere below the hole requiring a delicate shot to the putting surface up the hill.  The nearly heart shaped green is well protected with bunkers left, back and front right.

At the turn load up your favorite beverages and get a bite to eat.  Hamburgers, sandwiches and hot dogs with all the fixins’ are waiting by the 10th tee.

The tenth hole is a par 4, dog leg right.  A tee shot left center near the fairway bunker on the left should provide the ideal angle for your approach shot.  The green is severely sloped from back to front.  Do not go long.  Any putts left above the hole will have a hard time staying on the green.  You have been warned.  The green is elevated from the second shot influencing your club selection.

Hole number 11 is a down hill par 4.  The tee box is roughly 70 feet above the level of the fairway.  You’ve got plenty of options.  Bomb and it leave your self a short wedge, or play conservative and get it in the fairway with 150 yards or so left to the pin.  Either strategy can work well.  Just make sure that you hit the green and don’t leave it short, as a small pond protects the green.

The twelfth hole at Richter is a challenging par 5.  The tee shot and second shot are blind.  It is a green the long hitters can go for but it also has its risks.  The green is almost like an island green, flanked by water in front, right, and back.  Going for it in two requires a bit of courage, some luck, and solid strike.  For those not choosing to go for it in two, the third shot is still challenging.  A mid to short iron is all that will be left but the green is well protected.

The 13th hole is a short up hill par three and depending on what the wind is doing can be anything from a pitching wedge to a mid iron.  Bunkers front left and front right protect a undulating surface with a bit of a false front.

The 14th hole is a par 4 from an elevated tee.  The tee box is roughly 90 feet above the surface of the fairway.  Water on the right is reachable by long hitters.  A tee short of the water leaves a mid iron approach shot to a green guarded by bunkers front, left and back.

Hole number 15 is a dog leg right par 4 with a long pond guarding the right side of the fairway.  You can tee off with anything from a driver to an iron on this hole, but the smart play is usually a long iron or fairway wood down the left side of the fairway.  Your approach shot is to an elevated green guarded by deep bunkers front right and left.

The sixteenth hole is a long straight away par 5.  Trouble will find you if your tee shot finds the hazard along the right side of the hole.  Left center to center is your best route up to a wide green.  This hole offers a good opportunity for birdie if played well.

The seventeenth hole is a short par 3 from an elevated tee box.  The heavily bunkered green is wide and receptive.

The finishing hole is a dog leg right par 4.  The hole plays fairly long, with a good tee shot left center leaving a long iron or hybrid approach to a raised green.  Par on this hole is a good score.  Long hitters could bite off a bit of the corner leaving a shorter approach shot, but anything right is in trouble with no angle to green.

Conclusion:

Overall Richter Park is an excellent test of golf.  Fast undulating greens require accurate shots below the hole to have a good chance for birdies or pars.  The layout is tough and challenging with numerous blind shots and tricky approaches.  This is a course that rewards precision in ball striking as errant shots are easily and sometimes severely penalized.  The course is absolutely gorgeous in the fall with the foliage.

Website

Richter Park Golf Course

Rates:

GREENS FEES		WITH CART
Daily	$ 32		$ 50
Twilight	$ 20		$ 33
Juniors (18 and younger) (Monday – Thursday only)	$ 10		$ 28 (Carts available w/driving adult only)
Monday – Thursday	$ 23		$ 41
Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Holidays	$ 32		$ 50
Twilight	$ 20		$ 33
Monday – Thursday	$ 85		Carts complimentary
Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Holidays	$ 95		Carts complimentary
Twilight	$ 50		Carts complimentary
Seniors Monday – Thursday	$ 65		Carts complimentary
Juniors (up to 18 years) (Monday – Thursday only)	$ 10		$ 28

The last couple of weeks have been up and down in terms of my scores, but I have learned some very valuable lessons along the way.

In my last five rounds I have two of my best scores for the season, two of my worst, and an average round.  What does that tell you?  It tells me that golf is a game of patience.  You can’t control the outcome.  You can only control your process.

Golf is interesting because you can’t force a good shot, you can only let it happen, but you can definitely do a lot of things to create bad shots.  The opposite of that is what I think sports psychologists call “getting out of your own way”.

Over the last few weeks I’ve kept plugging away and practicing what I learned from my coach Eben Dennis.  What’s interesting is that little by little the pieces are coming together, but only because I’m still working on them.  Most golfers, when they take a lesson, or try to make a swing change, take a short term approach.  I don’t think they do it on purpose, but I think they get frustrated when they are not getting results.  So they start to think that what they were learning doesn’t work.  It might be because they tried to take it to the golf course and when it failed there, they assumed the idea or concept is broken.  They dump it and start working on another idea, trying a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.  But what if it wasn’t the idea or concept that was broken?  What if they just didn’t take the time they needed to really get it?

You can’t become a better player if you’re constantly trying and throwing out ideas.  Some things take a while to learn.  And sometimes, we need to unlearn before we can learn.  Drop bad habits so that you can make room for good habits.

One of these bad habits I had, which I didn’t even realize was that I was re gripping my club during the swing. I’m not sure if it was on the back swing or on the downswing, but at impact, the club was in a very different position from where it started in my hands.  Here’s the thing though, I didn’t figure this out until a few weeks after seeing Eben.  And once I figured it out, I needed to unlearn this habit, before I could pick up the habit of maintaining my grip in the same position throughout the swing.

Now that I’ve worked on it, there is one less compensation to make and this has made a world of difference.  It has taught me to use the club as it was designed to be used.  Sounds like a simple and common sense statement doesn’t it?  Use the club as it was intended to be used.  But the truth is that few very few golfers actually do that.  They use it as they think it’s supposed to be used, not as it was actually intended to be used and there’s a big difference.  If you go to the driving range you will see golfer after golfer, chopping away at the ball.  You’ll see them get into all kinds of contortions as they make compensations to get the club on the ball.

But the truth is that the club was not designed to require all these compensations and extra effort at the ball.  It was designed for ease of use to let the ball get in the way, and to use the loft and the club head to do the work as the ball simply bounces of the club face.  Think about that for a few minutes.  Marinade your mind in that thought.  The ball bounces off the face of the club, no extra effort needed and no need to chop at it.

This morning’s round is a sign that I’m working on the right things.  I shot a 76, that could easily have been a 70 if only a few more putts had gone in.  This round simply ramps up my determination to continue to work with the concepts I’ve been learning.  Control, Vision and Dynamic balance.  Get Power Feel Golf to understand what these mean in the golf swing.

I’ll bring my bag out to the practice area and I have a sleeve where I keep 10 practice balls.  The sleeve allows me to quickly pick them up, and drop balls anywhere I want to hit from.  It’s been a lot of fun just trying different shots and seeing which club and shot is easiest for me to get it consistently close.  Sometimes I’m surprised by the results.

For example, I picked a shot from the fringe off the green, with about 15 yards to the pin.  There was plenty of green to work with so I tried everything from 9 iron to 60 degree lob wedge.  I would hit a full sleeve of balls with each club, sometimes 2 or three depending on what I was feeling.  Sometimes it was easier to loft it high and land it soft, and other times it was easier to bump and run it up to the pin.  I found that I could get, on that particular shot, roughly the same results with the 9i, PW, 52 degree and 56 degree sand wedge, while the 60 degree was just a bit less consistent.

Once I get going it, I’m constantly picking up the 10 balls and dropping them in a new location to try a new shot.  It’s really a lot of fun, but the biggest benefit is that you begin to develop feel.  The more shots you hit with different clubs from different lies, the more creative you start to become.

I picked a shot that normally I would hit a lob wedge pitch with.  The ball was in the rough, about 5 yards from the fairway, 10 from the green, and 13 from the pin.  I tried some bump and runs with the PW and some pitches with 52 and in both cases I was able to get the balls pretty close to the pin, averaging three to four feet away.  The fun part was that the trajectories were very different and I had to see the shot very differently with those two clubs.  It was a lot of fun just to try different shots and I highly recommend it.

The more creative you can be in your practice, the more fun you can have.  The other benefit of it, is that it takes your mind of mechanics.  It forces you to visualize more clearly and to concentrate more on the feel you are trying to achieve.  This is the kind of practice that I believe can translate well to the course.

They were using their feel and imagination not thinking about their backswing or swing plane. They were artists with the club being their paint brush. They played golf and not golf swing. They understood the tools they were using like a carpenter understands his. They developed routines that would allow them to repeat how they prepared to play the shot at hand. They prepared for the golf course as if it were a chess match. As Hogan once said a golfer playing golf without feel would be like a deaf man trying to play the piano by ear.  They knew the equipment was built for ease of use and respected its value.

Most from that era also learned to play during the wooden shaft era and if they swung too hard they would break the clubs so they stayed with that feeling when steel shafts came along and allowed players to slash at the ball without penalty of a broken club. They also understood as many of the best players do today that the golf ball just gets in the way of going forward toward the target instead of hitting at it like most players do. The best understood that you can control the club effectively only from your fingers and that everything supports what they do.

In short they were doing little thinking and mostly creating.

How often have you played golf with a state of mind like this?  How often have you thought of yourself as an artist, with the golf club and ball as your paint brush, and the golf course as your canvas.

Eben also shared a story with me about the time he had a chance to play 9 holes with the Champions Golf club founder Jimmy Demaret.  Mr. Demaret hadn’t competed in about 10 years and hadn’t swung a club in months,  yet played nine holes with Eben and shot 31, making it look effortless and easy.  Afer the fifth time of Eben asking him how he could make it look so easy after not swinging a club for so long, Mr. Demaret looked at him and said “I just look where I want to go, then feel the shot and go there.”

On Friday, May 21st I spent a half day with my coach Eben Dennis at The Links at Hiawatha Landing.

We started out at the driving range working wedges down to the driver.  During that part of the session we reviewed some of the principles of Power Feel Golf on which my game is currently based.  The main concepts we went over were how control and vision create dynamic balance.

Control is partly achieved by how you hold the club.  We found that I was actually holding the club with the face a bit closed to compensate for shots left out to the right.  Holding the club with the face square to the target felt a little bit strange but I understood that it was the right move to make, as I have been working on simplifying my swing and eliminating compensations.

Since the session I have been getting more and more comfortable holding the club with the club face square.  In fact I’ve learned that my fear of hitting it right is really unfounded.  With the club in this new position my ball flight has straightened out considerably.  My pitching has also improved tremendously.  I can easily launch it high and soft, something I had difficulty doing before.

The other part that we needed to work on was my hand strength.  By this I don’t mean how the Vs in my grip are pointing, I actually mean how lightly or strongly I’m holding on to the club.  It turns out that you can hold on to the club firmly while allowing the rest of your body and your arms to remain supple and loose. I was holding a lot of tension from my shoulders down, but as I learned to feel this new way of holding onto the club I felt more connected to it and more fluid.  This part of it is one of the aspects that has taken the longest to adjust to, but it is really making a big difference.

The other thing we spent a lot of time talking about was the vision.  The vision is not just about how you see the shots, but it is also about how your body moves.  When the body moves slow, the hands can move quick.  But when the body moves fast the hands move slow.  This is one of the best things that has happened to the way I understand the movements in the golf swing, and the vision has a lot to do with it.  It’s hard to explain so its something you need to learn about and feel.

The other thing I learned about the way my vision was moving, was that it moved initially backwards.  This was a result of being ball bound.  This also resulted in hitting down at the ball, instead of through it and out to the target.  Over the past few days I have learned how to maintain more of my focus out toward the target.  This keeps the vision from falling back and also helps to keep things in sync.  If all of this is making your head spin a bit, I would suggest you go to Power Feel Golf and read the book.  You can also buy the book, DVD and training grip from this website on the products page.

You can see we covered a lot of issues during that driving range session.  After that we headed to the chipping and putting area and worked a bit on short game.  All of the issues I was having in my full swing showed up there too.  But that’s good because I can work on them and as I iron these out, they will help my full swing too.

Implementing Eben’s ideas in chipping and pitching made a big difference.  It helped to improve my feel and distance control, as well as allowing me to control trajectory easily.  We hit a lot of pitches and I slowly started to get it.  My short game has improved but it’s not the strongest part of my game, however I now have a game plan to make it one of the best parts of it.

After the short game area we headed out to the golf course for 9 holes.  We started on the back nine of Hiawatha.  It was my first time playing a true links layout.  The only trees are around the perimeter of the property.  But there is plenty of high grass, undulating fairways, and undulating rough to make it a challenge.  The course is in fantastic shape, with fast firm greens.  This means that you need to be accurate and have excellent distance control.  Sometimes it took a number of tries to implement what Eben was teaching me correctly.  The reason is that I had a lot of chatter and conflicting swing thoughts.  These little conflicts would result in either indecision, or one style trying to overpower the other.  I had some bad habits that I was having a tough time letting go of.

I hit a few stellar shots that really excited me.  I also knew that the more I used what Eben was teaching me, and the less I let my old habits interfere, the better off that I would be.  We did not keep score for the 9 holes, but it wasn’t pretty although there were some highlights.

BTW if you have not taken a playing lesson, I highly recommend it.  It is helpful for transferring what you learn on the range to the golf course.  With your coach there, they can see what you are actually doing and make corrections there, or just say the right thing to get you back on track.

The Links at Hiawatha Landing has an amazing practice area and I wish that the courses near me where I play had something like this.  In addition to a generously large practice chipping and putting green,the practice area includes 3 full length holes.  Two of them are Par 3s of about 125 yards, and the other is a par 4 of about 330 yards.

This half-day spent with Eben was a highlight of my life as a golfer.  It is pretty amazing to spend some time with a teacher of Eben’s caliber.  He really knows the game, and knows how to simplify it.  I recently played some of the best golf I have all year.  I shot 77 at a very tough course up in the Albany, NY area, Orchard Creek in Altamont, NY.  It’s one of my favorite courses there, and it was my first time bre4aking 80.  The work I’ve done with Eben has given me a lot of confidence.  Take a look at Power Feel Golf, it can really simply the swing for you.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the Roll-Master putter manufacturing facilities.  During that short visit I got to see first hand how putters are designed and made. Roll-master makes the “Ringer” line of putters.  The putter is unique in that it makes a bell-like tone, much like that of fine crystal, when the ball is struck on the sweet spot of the putter.   Practicing with this putter provides instant and automatic feedback about your putting stroke.

At first the sound was unfamiliar to me.  No putter I had ever used produced a sound quite like this one.  The differences in the sound from hitting the sweet spot and hitting it off center are quite dramatic.  It really is an excellent way to know how solidly you’re stroking the putt without needing visual confirmation.  You can also see how you stroked it on the roll out of the ball.  A well struck putt from the sweet spot rolls out straight and with a solid end over end roll.  A poorly stroked putt will tend to wobble off its intended line and will have a more erratic roll.

The putter is similar to a heavy putter in its weight, although with the counterbalancing weight it feels more like a mid weight putter.  The club head weighs in at 400 grams.  A weight of 125 grams sits in the grip end to act as a counterbalance, moderating the wrists and smoothing out the stroke.  With the heavier club head the putter is easier to maintain online.  It does take a bit of getting used to.  I was told that most golfers who use the ringer, notice that in the beginning they leave putts short.  They assume that the heavier putter will pull itself through with gravity alone, but that is not the case.  A golfer still needs to make a confident stroke, but it is nothing that can’t be corrected by practice.

The last defining characteristic of the putter is that it has the first ever “EDM” face.  A process called electric discharge machining creates 30,000 dimples on a typical Ringer putter.  The resulting face is flat, non-slippery, and has a very unique feel to it.  Running your hand over the face of the putter reminds you a bit of sandpaper, but in a smoother way.  It does feel really nice and what I noticed is that it seems to grip the ball nicely and really put a beautiful end over end roll on the putts.

There is another putter in the works from Roll-Master Golf.  The new putter is a blade design and it looks like it’s going to be an excellent putter.

Creating the EDM face on”The Ringer”

The process is very interesting and cool to watch.  The putter head is secured and submerged in a machine that contains a liquid solution.  The machining element then is lowered just above the putter and what looks like mini lightning strikes the putter face over and over for nearly a minute with the electrical element jumping out of the way after each “strike”.  It certainly putts and feels differently than an insert putter.

Overall I found the putter to be an excellent piece of equipment.  I’ve never seen a putter being made before, in person.  It was a very cool experience and one that I won’t soon forget.

The putter is manufactured to very tight tolerances.  KAF Manufacturing where the Ringer putter is made, is known as a precision machine shop, building parts for scientific equipment, aerospace and other technically demanding industries.  While touring the shop they showed me a few mirrors for high end equipment.  These mirrors are so precisely manufactured that they cannot be touched by a person as that will ruin them for their intended use.

Jack Feighery, CEO of Roll-Master Golf was also kind enough to donate a putter for use in the Fore! Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation golf marathon, to be used in the $10,000 putting contest.

The expertise of the craftsmen at KAF Manufacturing includes:

• Electrical Discharge Machining
• Single point diamond turning
• Precision ball and roller bearing manufacturing
• CNC turning
• CNC milling
• Grinding

Here’s a video of the EDM process:

Here’s a closeup of the EDM dimples:

On Wednesday, May 19th, I played in the golf marathon for the Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation at Crystal Springs resort in New Jersey.

It was one of the best golf experiences I have had in my life.  The resort is beautiful and the Crystal Springs golf course is a very challenging layout.  Although it’s not as long as some other courses, you must keep the ball in play and on the fairway.  And even if you manage to hit the fairway you need to be in the correct side of the fairway.  There are very few flat lies on the fairways and even less of them in the rough.  The rough is full of punishing grass moguls that make it difficult hit good shots to the large, but fast undulating greens.  This course has some of the largest greens I have played on, but you must be in the right part of the green to have a good putt at birdie or even par.

Besides the beauty and difficulty of the golf course, the whole day was so much fun.  Once I checked in with Rob Pritts of Back9Promotions, the man behind the golf marathon, we got some breakfast and an opportunity to meet some of the other golfers and participants including about 10 players from the New York Jets.  I ended up playing with 3 of the Jets, 2 of them for over 50 holes of golf.

I ended up playing a total of 63 holes of golf.  It was the most I have ever played in one day, and although it was tiring, the whole experience was amazing.  The two Jets I played with were wide receiver Danny Woodhead and safety Jim Leonard.  Both of these guys have excellent golf games.  One of the contests during the day was to see who could play the most number of holes with a Bridgestone ball that was handed out at the beginning of the day.  Danny Woodhead ended up playing his Bridgestone for 33 holes and ended up winning the prize (a very nice Bridgestone Staff Bag).  I unfortunately lost mine on the 2nd hole.

One of the my favorite holes on the Crystal Springs course was the 2nd hold on the Classic 9.  It was also the hole on which I started my day.  It is a 185 yard hole 75 feet below the tee, across a quarry pool to a bow tie (or dog bone) shaped green.  The first time I played the hole, I over clubbed and hit a 5 iron off the roof of the house that bounced back onto the green from where I made my par.

I was also proud to be wearing a golf shirt donated by L.O.F.T. golf of Hartford, CT.  And I was able to deliver a putter donated by the Roll-Master Golf called “The Ringer“, which makes a sweet sound, like fine crystal, when you hit a putt on the sweet spot, for the $10,000 putting contest.

Although the day was about golf, it was also very rewarding to raise money for a great cause.  The Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation creates wow experiences for families with a parent diagnosed with late stage cancer.  It is very sad to think that the kids in those families are going to lose a mom or a dad.  In the end we raised about 35,000 for the foundation.

http://www.hernco.com/golfclub/ac51522.htm

To buy game sense or to get more information about it go to www.gamesensegolf.com.

I bought the Tifosi Ventoux in the gunmetal color.  These sunglasses come with a hard case, a soft case and 3 sets of interchangeable lenses.  The hard case was important to me as I might keep them in the golf bag and didn’t want them to break.  The hard case is nice and light, but still sturdy enough to give me peace of mind that they won’t break while in there.

The sunglasses came with 3 interchangeable lenses: The GT (golf and tennis) lens, the EC (extreme contrast) and the AC (All Conditions Red).  So far I’ve only worn them with the golf and tennis lenses but I am quite impressed with the quality of the lenses and the frame.

I wear these sunglasses all the time playing golf, even when it’s not as bright.  They cut down on the glare and really help me saw the ball better off the club face and in the air.  The enhanced contrast is great for reading greens.

Another benefit I’ve found  is that these lenses don’t create any distortion.  I had another pair of golf sunglasses before, and while the contrast was great, the shape of the lens actually created some distortion.  The way the lens wrapped around my face and the eye was also a bit of a problem because when I putted, it was like looking through bifocals, except that instead of blurry and sharp areas, it was areas covered by the glasses and those not covered by the glasses.  That made putting difficult.  With these Tifosi sunglasses that issue is a thing of the past for me.

The glasses come with the interchangeable lenses, a hard case, and s soft cloth bag which also doubles as a polishing cloth.  For $60, they are an excellent deal and I’m very glad that I got them.  If you’re in need of some golf sunglasses, give these a chance, they won’t disappoint.

Tifosi Optics

After hitting a few wayward drives (two that went OB on me) I decided to also leave the driver in the bag the rest of the round.  I just wasn’t feeling comfortable with it and it just wasn’t working well with the swing changes.  Besides Richter Park is not so long that I would miss the driver.  So I spent most of the round teeing off my 18 degree Cobra Baffler pro hybrid and decided that I would play the par 5s as 3 shot holes.

I was hitting the hybrid probably 20 yards behind where I would normally hit my driver and so much straighter.  On one hole I went hybrid – lob wedge and ended up about 8 feet from the pin slightly above the hole.  The only hole where driver would really have made a difference for me was 18.  I thinned the hybrid and ended up with 205 to the back of the green, to a green perched roughly 15 yards above me.  I would have proffered a shorter second shot but that’s golf.

I was pretty amazed at how well the swing changes worked.  My irons were crisp and very straight.  I ended up with an 81 that could have been even better had I left the driver in the car from the beginning.  I had 2 drives that went OB on me, and without those penalties the score could have been much lower.  However, my irons were crisp, as were my wedges.  I had really solid distance control all day and I’m excited for what these swing changes will bring.

During the round I also decided to implement the strategy from this article about asking the right questions.  The other thing that has improved my scoring is Game Sense.  Even when I don’t hit pure shots, I’m leaving myself good opportunities to save my score.  Deciding on the correct strategy based on what I brought to the course that day has now become second nature and it really makes the game so much more fun.  I recognize what the course architects are trying to do to trick golfers and I can very easily select the right strategy.  Sun Tzu said, and I’m paraphrasingm that every battle is won or lost before it has even begun.  Although golf is not a battle it is a competition between you and the golf course.  Use the right strategies and make the best decisions and you give yourself good opportunities to play well.

Often though we get caught up in things like our score, our competitors, pressure, what I did on the last hole, or 3 holes ago and we get away from asking “What is my target?”.  But Dr. Valiante is right.  The questions do drive us.  Asking the right questions can help us play better, make better decisions and keep us in the moment, while asking the wrong questions, can quickly take us out of the moment and down that road we’ve been before, and we know where that road ends.

The wrong questions introduce fear and distractions, they make us focus on the past or on the future, and they take us out of the zone if we were in it, or more likely, just take us further away from being in the zone.

So how do we get to the point where we are asking the right questions?  One of the key ways I think is to think well about the strategy, the way we want to play the hole.  Thinking about strategy puts us back squarely in the present.  Asking ourselves the question “How do I want to play this hole?” is much more constructive than something like, “I usually hit way right on this hole, what if I do that again? Or worse, what if I hit it in the water?  What if I look like a fool?”.  One question gets your mind moving in a direction that allows you to marshal your resources, the other takes you out of the present, introduces fear and doubt, and makes it hard to focus on this shot right now.

This is where something like Game Sense is very helpful.  Listening to the program will teach you those strategies.  Then when you ask yourself “How do I want to play this hole?” you can pull up strategies that work.  Instead of focusing on useless, doubt creating questions, you can strategize and step up to the ball confidently because you know that with the right strategy, even if you don’t hit the perfect shot, you can get away with it and miss it good.  That alone can result in more confident and fearless golf.

So remember, it’s the question that drives us.  Choose the right question and you move in the right direction.  Choose the wrong question and it’s like trying to play with one hand  tied behind your back.

The first thing I noticed was that my setup didn’t feel right.  After a bit more careful thought I determined that it was my shoulder alignment.  My shoulders were a bit open.  I had to consciously set myself up properly and once I did that my shots straightened out bit and the ball would start either right on line, or slightly right of target and draw back in.

I think it’s important to know what our tendencies are and to try to develop better habits.  My shoulders opening up at address is a tendency that I have and it creeps back in if I don’t watch my setup.  It can also creep into my putting and send putts off line.

However knowing that it is a tendency allows me to be on the lookout for it and the place to make those changes is on the practice tee.  If you build good habits on the practice tee you can take them to the course.

Often when you read about tour players going to see their instructors, you might notice that they talk about working on their fundamentals.  Setup, grip, ball position, etc.  Even tour players can let their own tendencies creep into their game and a good instructor will notice that happening and begin to correct them.  I read recently that Kenny Perry was having some problems with his driving.  He was getting stuck and had the club coming from too far inside and as a result he was losing distance.  His ball position with the driver had slowly crept for forward.  Once he recognized that, he was able to get his ball position back into a better place for him, and his driving improved.