Bucket of Balls

U.S. Open – Tiger vs Phil

From Yahoo Sports…

The Kiss That Caused My Slice

With Father’s Day fast approaching, are you scrambling to find your special golfer a good gift?  Well, you’re in luck!  I was a lucky recipient of The Kiss That Caused My Slice: A Book of Poems by John Ducker.

Okay, when I first heard about this I was like, “A book of golf poems, uhhhhhh, hmmmmm….” [insert weird facial expression].  When I got the book and read through a few of the poems though, I found myself chuckling at the funny parts and relating Ducker’s stories to my own game and my own experiences.  Being an avid reader, reading through this book was a nice change of pace from the usual “how to fix your golf game” book.  Light and refreshing.

Here’s a few lines from “Hole Countdown”:

The first hole is always rough on me, it’s hard to find a groove,
My moving parts stay stationary, whily my steady parts all move.
The second hole is usually wasted in anger over number one,
And by the third hole I’ll quit keeping score and “only play for fun.”

I also found a few interesting reviews on Amazon too:

“A great golf book that captures the spirit of the game.”

“This book is a must gift for any golfer, for anyone who lives with or wants to live with a golfer, perhaps for anyone who wants convincing to move out from a golfer, and for anyone who wants to do a golfer a great favor.”

Golf Tips – No Slide on the Downswing

I came across this video about unwinding on the downswing, where there’s no lateral movement toward the target.  I’ve heard from other golf teachers that there is “some” lateral movement toward the target on the downswing.  How else would golfers end up in the reverse C position if there wasn’t at least a smidge of lateral movement?

What do you think?

golfTEC: Stroke-Saving Decisions

Read this really good article in golfTEC’s June Newsletter about better decision-making on the golf course:

But then there are shots that you “leave out there”—the ones that have less to do with your skill level and swing mechanics, and more to do with your decision making and strategy. These shots shouldn’t happen. So we’re going to help you clean up your scorecard by keeping them from happening.

In every round of golf there are a few shots that you’d like to get back—the occasional mis-hit off the tee, the flier out of the rough, the pitch that comes out hotter than you anticipated. These shots happen—it’s part of the game.

Read the rest here

Crazy Guy Hit with Golf Ball

After watching this video, I looked to find out the speed of a golf ball.  At an approximate clubhead speed of 109, the golf ball leaves the face of the driver at about 180 mph.  Considering the size of a golf ball, that’s gotta hurt.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

FedEx Golfing School of Business: Options

Legends Golf & Safari Resort – 19th Hole Extreme Par 3

This extreme par 3 came up in a conversation I had last week, so I thought it’d be worth sharing.  I have a fear of heights, so I probably couldn’t even attempt this crazy hole!

Turn Your Hip Drill

I came across a pretty good video that explains the hip turn during the golf swing.  It’s from a guy named Shawn Clement and he has his own website: http://www.shawnclementgolf.com.  (Why is that chic in the background working on the computer?)

golfTEC Taught Me to Skip Stones

Okay, it’s been about 4 weeks since my swing evaluation session at golfTEC.  I’ve had 2 lessons since then.  The results: I feel like a gunshot victim who has a bullet lodged in his brain who has to relearn how to talk (Regarding Henry for golf?).  Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but you get my point, right?

Taking a look back at my golfTEC Swing Evaluation post, you can see how much work needs to be done.  The first 2 sessions, we’ve been focusing mostly on takeaway and the top position.

Here’s the progress I’ve made in that regard:

Granted, just because I got to the correct top position for that particular pose, doesn’t mean it comes naturally.  I still drill every day for that.  My golfTEC coach, Thomas Baird proclaims, “10,000 swings”.  That’s the number of swings to make it stick.  100 swings a day for 100 days.  That should do it.

So between my first lesson and second lesson I went out a few times to hit balls, concentrating on getting in the correct top position.  I thought I did pretty well, but then the problem was we didn’t talk about the downswing yet, so I was still hacking up dirt plenty of times.

The second lesson we focused on turning the hips during the downswing.  Apparently, there’s also some lateral movement toward the target as well as the hip turn.  That’s a lot to remember in a split second!  You can see some of my pictures here.

Toward the end of the lesson, Thomas gave me an analogy that made the most sense.  I was struggling putting my head around the idea that your spine angle is away from the target, your head is behind the ball at impact, but your weight is on your left side (see Appleby above).  Thomas had me pretend to skip some stones.  That was easy and it ends up being practically the same motion as the golf swing.  When I skip a stone, I look like Appleby in that picture above.

Well, I can’t say that when I went to the range with my new mantra that I was crushing balls.  Anything but.  However, I did play Melrose Par 3 course the other day and I crushed a 6-iron with that new philosophy.  Translation: progress.

Now it’s back to drills, drills, drills.  Thinking about playing a real round this weekend to test some of these new things out.  Wish me luck!

Hank Haney 86′s Tiger Woods

Wow, if things couldn’t get any worse for Tiger Woods, Hank Haney resigns as his swing coach.  I first read the news from Shane Bacon at Devil Ball Golf:

Haney issued a statement on Monday night about his decision to move away from Team Tiger. The gist of it is below:  “I have informed Tiger Woods this evening that I will no longer be his coach.”

Read the rest here about Hank Haney leaving Tiger Woods.