Category: Game Of Golf

Articles about the game of golf.

Playing Real Golf

Playing Real Golf

playing real golf
Playing Real Golf
Keys to teaching the golf swing
Ball Flight All That Matters

Played Shore Gate Golf Course down near Cape May New Jersey today, 11/12/2017. Played the white tees at about 6700 yards, 45 degrees, cart paths only, course was wet and played long.

What I shot is not important. What is important is that I was playing real golf.  I played one ball, and tried to grind it out as if I was playing in a championship. Counted every shot, penalties, no take overs, putted everything into the hole.

The numbers themselves are not important; they are what they are. What is important is that I write down on the scorecard every score for every hole. This brings the reality of what you shoot into focus. It brings the abstraction into the what is in the here and now.

Playing golf this way may not be a championship, but the mindset becomes the same. I put my head into a tournament situation and played every shot as if it meant something. I played the ball down, played like I had to shoot a score. I felt as if I was playing tournament golf, playing real golf.

We as PGA professionals make so many concessions on an everyday basis, as regards rules and trying to get patrons to enjoy the game, that is is becoming vitally important to me personally to revisit the true roots of the game, the true spirit of the game, and to play golf the way it was meant to be played.

I need this experience of playing golf the way it was meant to be played to replenish my sense of duty to the golfers who I meet on an everyday basis, whether members, guests, tournament players, or green fees. Playing real golf, no matter where it is, can only enhance my experience as a golf professional, and can only make me better as a player and a better professional.

It was a struggle today, but it felt good. I may not have a US Open game anymore, but calling myself out and putting that pressure on myself every time I go out on the course to play is worth the effort. Since golf is 99 percent in your head anyway, why not play in my own reality. Make the entire picture a tournament picture. I am playing real golf.

Every round I play from here on in will be a tournament round. Every shot I hit on the course will be a tournament shot. I have to learn to play real golf again. It is very important to me to do this. I have to revisit that sense of goodness, well-being, and continuity that comes from playing one ball into the hole.

No more practice for me. Just grinding it out as if every shot I play is in the US Open. No one else has to know what I am trying to accomplish. All that matters is that I am pitted against myself as I experience a round of golf and as I experience the golf course.

 

Game Of Golf

A Few Words About The Game Of Golf

This is Murphy. He loved golf more than anyone I ever knew!

There is nothing sacred or mystical about the game of golf. It is just a dirty old game that drives once sane men to the brink of madness.

Trying to figure out the game is next to impossible. You might be able to figure out some things fundamental to the golf swing itself, but when it comes to the game, to playing and scoring and luck and breaks and fairness and all those semi-abstract or purely abstract entities, there is no sense in trying to make sense of any of it. One day the ball goes into the hole quite easily, and the next day you couldn’t putt the ball into a bushel basket.

I love the game, I love playing the game, I love the irony and the unfairness of it all. I have hit a zillion golf balls with major physical injuries, overcome a paralyzed left arm and left shoulder ( I golf from the right side), played the last three and a half months of the 2008 season on my left leg because I blew out my right knee and couldn’t put any pressure on it so I had to swing on and around my left leg. I hit the ball better and felt like my game was more under control as strange as that seems. Funny thing is that I could not putt anymore. I missed hundreds of putts to the same side of the hole except for those few days when I could not miss a putt even if I tried and everything I stroked went into the hole. Same great stroke on those other days, but just had weight in a different place at address because of the injury and didn’t take the time to figure it out.

There is not much free time to do anything as a club pro in this world and this economy. On the good days I was under par. I was hitting between 12 to 16 greens in regulation on a normal basis, but shot high scores when I was not putting well. Playing golf on one leg is an interesting experience. Almost as interesting as playing with a paralyzed left shoulder and left arm that I incurred in a bizarre factory accident that should have rendered me dead or at least dismembered, but left me paralyzed instead. I started playing golf as rehabilitation, and found I liked the whole idea, it suited my mentality and fed and nurtured my health and well-being. I started by taping my left hand to the grip of a club then after I put the left hand on the grip, I would swing the entire swing by using my right arm and right side, since my left arm was not working very well.

After  while, the muscles on my left side began to respond and regenerate, and I was able to swing a little using both arms. It happened almost imperceptibly, I hardly noticed, but one day I was using both hands and both arms, despite what I was told by a dozen neurosurgeons and neurologists.

Then I broke my left wrist in five places while I was changing a hole placement on the golf course. The cutter caught a rock and I bent back my wrist and snapped it. I still haven’t fully recovered from that one almost twenty years ago. I learned to swing the golf club a  hundred different ways and I also learned that the same fundamentals are common to all those ways of swinging. Most of the strength and flexibility exercises I developed and try to show on this web site were born from my injuries. I push myself to the brink then try to recover and strengthen the injury. I love the metaphysics of it all, the uncertainty principle, like the bounce Tiger Woods got the other day when his ball hit a cart path and bounced over a boundary fence ending up out of bounds.

In years past the ball would have hit a cart path gone out of bounds, then hit a rock and bounced back into the fairway from where he would make a birdie or eagle. This time Tim Clark sent him home early. Time and tides change, the ebbs and flows of reality lead us down many different pathways, especially where golf is concerned. The more you think you know about the game, the less you actually understand. There is no rhyme or reason as to why things happen, except maybe that luck and good breaks run in cycles too.

It does not matter how good your are, sometimes you need a little comfort from the unknown and by the unknown, sometimes you just need a good break, a good thing to happen to you. I remember hitting the most perfect lob shot I ever hit in my life that was so soft it stuck in the very top branch of a pine tree, a fraction of an inch more and I was stiff to the hole. I could not accept it.

After I related the story, I asked a friend how long my bad luck would continue. Without even breaking a sweat, he answered with a sweet smile on his face, “It could go on for years, or even lifetimes.” Oh well so be it. I am still here and still playing despite all the odds and because of an iron will and the strength and constitution of an elephant. Life goes on, and so will I, at least until I cannot go on any longer. But I will still be playing golf !

Quotes

“Concentrate on the Connectedness to the Core.” Paul Elice

“Change is the price of survival.” Gary Player

“Focus on concentration.” Lou Holtz

“In trying to meditate all meditation ceases. In trying to do anything, anything ceases. There is effort and no effort.” Lao Chen Su

“My body slips into a meditative state without my knowledge or awareness. My mind goes with it. It is powerful instinct. The minute I become aware of it, it goes away. You cannot consciously meditate. Meditation happens by itself. Meditation is a mind of its own with a life of its own. It owns the owner. There is no choice.” Juengjm

 

All Golfers Read This Letter

 

Ladies Golf Academy Week 2016

Thanks for participating in our annual Ladies Golf Academy Version 2016. We hope you will gain some knowledge of the golf swing in general, and how to get the ball moving toward the green and into the hole.

Remember that proper swing fundamentals can never be replaced. However, since everyone has a different approach to the golf swing, these fundamentals must fit into the framework of each individual swing.

How you hold the golf club (the grip), how you stand and set up to the ball, and how your body moves in relation to the “circular” motion of the golf swing itself all have a profound effect on the quality of your golf shots.

We encourage you to play as often as you can, and remember that even a little practice of some of the things you have learned in this Academy can go a long way toward making you a better golfer.

Just repeating your grip or club takeaway using slow motion swings in the backyard can help you become a better golfer.

The old saying was that “golf is the game of a lifetime.” Like all fundamentals, this statement is still very true. Golf is probably the only game you can play as long as you are able to swing a golf club.

Please make every effort to enjoy and “stay in the game!”

“Get Golf Ready” is the new standard for bringing new golfers and keeping golfers in the game. The foundation for this program is one simple word: “FUN!”

When you play golf enjoy it, relax, take satisfaction in your good shots and keep trying to improve on the not so good shots. The important thing is to keep playing.

There is no better “total well-being exercise” than the game of golf. It is played outdoors in the fresh air. It is total mental and physical relaxation and exercise. But the bottom line is that golf is just plain good for you.

Thanks for your help in making us better teachers, and for your participation in our program Dutch Hollow Country Club. We hope to see you on Wednesday evenings once the Academy is finished playing in the Ladies Scramble League.

Keep Swinging!