Progressive Swing Thoughts

"Be the ball" Ty famously preaches in Caddyshack. It's a good line, one repeated millions of times on golf courses around the world, but as far as actual productive golf advice it's about as useless to the average golfer as recommendations about how far you should back up your sand wedge from 80 yards. I had a bit of a revelation on the range last fall, during a time that I was hitting the ball particularly well (for a 12 handicapper, anyway): The swing thoughts of a scratch golfer should not and could not ever be the same as that of a golfer of lesser skill. NOT EVER. I think this is why I flip right past most advice columns in golf magazines. Not only do I think it would be damaging to my game to try to implement advice from someone who's never seen me hit a golf ball. In addition, I think the things a pro or advanced teacher thinks about doesn't apply to most golfers.

When you start out you have to think about a million different things. "Never keep more than 100 things in your mind during a golf swing" Dr. Parent advices in "Zen Golf", but it sure feels like that would be quite a trick. "Left arm straight", "Keep your eyes on the ball", and "Don't move your head" are just a few. And you practice and practice, and you get a little better.

Then you eventually get to the point where you have these things pretty much down pat. Now you have to start worrying about things like body turn and tempo. Maybe someting about your swing plane or your finishing position. And you practice and practice, and you get a little better still.

Now you get into the rarified air where your swing thoughts no longer have anything to do with the physical aspects of your golf swing. I've played golf for 35 years, and I've only been there once. On the range last fall I found myself with only one thought: Visualizing, in super-slow-motion, the face of the club making contact with the ball. I hit Driver and irons, and I was making beautiful contact with the ball. The shots were effortless and straight, and I was smiling from ear to ear.

It was then that I realized that if I were to tell a beginning golfer to have the same image in their head would be an absolute disaster. They'd be lucky to make contact at all without focusing on all that other crap.

It was a lot of fun being in that place, and I'm working hard to be able to get back there.

And, maybe just maybe, I will one day be able to just "Be the ball".

Match Play picks

There may be other places to do this, but I put my picks in on golfweek.com. I'll start from the back: I have McDowell to win it, with Casey, Hoffman, and Kaymer joining him in the final four. Here's how I predict a few other interesting matchups will go:

• I have Molinari beating Westwood in the third round.
• I have Monassero beating Stricker in the opening round.
• I have Rory winning a couple of matches but losing to Jimenez.
• I have Jimenez beating Furyk in the second round.
• I have Van Pelt beating Phil in the third round.
• I have Phil beating Rickie in the second round.
• I have Tiger losing to Casey in the Quarter Finals.
• I have Bill Haas beating a couple of bombers in Bubba and DJ, but falling to Tiger.

Keep'em in the short stuff.

Interesting pairings

Other than the majors and a few other tournaments, this week's event is one of my absolute favorites of the PGA Tour season. I play a lot of Match Play in my personal outings, and this particular format is such a big part of the game's history as well. Here are some of the pairings I will keep a particularly close eye on as things get underway:

• Poulter (3) vs Cink (14) - Battle of the former and current Twitter champion on tour.
• Oosthuizen (5) vs. Van Pelt (12) - A couple of talented young ballstrikers. Watch for Van Pelt to have a breakout year this year.
• Westwood (1) vs. Stenson (16) - Henrik may be as good a #16 as there has ever been in this event. Look for this one to go down to the wire, with gin-breath edging the herring-head.
• Watney (8) vs. Kim (9) - I hope AK is healthy. Watney regressed a bit last year, but the talent is there.
• Woods (1) vs. Bjorn (16) - It's Tiger. Of course we have to watch.
• Watson (5) vs. Haas (12) - Talk about contrasting styles of play. Who will win, the tortoise or the hare?
• Ogilvy (8) vs. Harrington (9) - The only battle between former major winners. Geoff is playing better right now. The verdict is still out as to whether Paddy will recover from his tinkering.

Keep'em in the short stuff.

Top 10 Drinking Games To Play While Watching The PGA Tour

This list was inspired by the ever-excellent Shane Bacon of Yahoo Sports fame. He made a comment last weekend that a new drinking game would be to drink every time the commentators mentioned that Johnny Vegas was a rookie. His comment made me think about other things that happen ALL the time during a golf broadcast, and I came up with this list. I sort of focused on the irritating things that don't really need to be said, the stupid noise that they insist on filling the airwaves with. I've tried to make it as non-personal as possible, but I think you can figure out who I'm talking about most of the time: 10 - Drink every time they tell us about Miguel Angel Jimenez "Love for life" (He's a big ol' fat guy, he loves wine and stogies, he hits shots off the wall on the Road Hole, and he putts with his wedge. He's quite possibly the coolest guy on any tour right now. There are SO many more things to say about him than just that he "loves life".) 9- Drink every time they proclaim some young player as the next dominant player in the world. (Really, it's quite likely he won't be. I don't cheer for anyone to fail, but I know very few of the really really talented golfers have the mindset it takes to get to the top). 8 - Drink every time they mention Amy Mickelson or Bubba's Dad, or some other non-golf topic du jour (It's cold of me to list this, I know. This is what we call "reality". It's tragic and inspiring and emotional, but we really don't need to hear about it every time that player is in a shot.) 7 - Drink every time there is a comment about JD's or Smurf's clothing. (They've been wearing this stuff for years, folks, it's not exactly revolutionary.) 6 - Drink every time they mention how Tiger today is not the Tiger of yore. (He'll never be that dominant again. Get over it.) 5 - Drink every time they mention how long guys like Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson hit the ball. (We know, they're studs, you don't have to marvel about it every time.) 4 - Drink every time a commentator says something like "You could see he pulled that shot" when the ball lands left of the target. (If you could see it, why didn't you say something before the ball landed? You just sound like an idiot.) 3 - Drink every time some swing guru tries to analyze a swing, without being able to make a point in any way (It's usually in the form of a comparison to their old swing, or an explanation why a certain shot went a certain way. It's usually quite useless.) 2 - Drink every time some former great player makes it clear they were better than today's players. (You were great in your day, guys. These guys are great in their day. Your role is not to lift yourself up to put them down, but to analyze the game.) And the number 1 drinking game to play while watching professional golf on TV is: 1 - Drink every time a commentator says a player is going to make this putt/chip, with utmost confidence, and the player then misses it. (I'm not sure what they think this adds to the broadcast.) DISCLAIMER: Don't be a f*cking idiot. This is a f*cking joke. Don't even f*cking think about suing me if you play one of these games and your liver fails.

Practice Log - January 2011

This is a new thing I'm going to do this year: I'm going to publish my practice log for every month of the year. I figured this way I'll be more motivated to work on my game, and to work on the right things. Firstly, let me say that I firmly believe in time on the range being the key to improving my game. I know some golfers spend a lot more time on the course than on the range, but I know if I did that I would not improve significantly at all. For me, the best ratio is 3-4 trips to the range for every round I play, and at times it's a lot more. I only get out to play a couple of times a month, so I feel like I owe it to golf to have my game in as good shape as possible. There are times I go to the range a dozen times between rounds. It doesn't hurt that I LOVE going to the range. I thoroughly enjoy hitting buckets, putting, and chipping alike. It's one thing to hit one good golf shot, like you would do on the course. It's quite another to be able to hit good shot after good shot after good shot, like you might do on the range. It's VERY satisfying to me. So here goes. Living in Dallas is wonderful if you're a golfer, as we had some very nice days even in January, so I've been able to stay somewhat active:

• 1/4 - 45 minutes, putt and chip
• 1/13 - 100 balls
• 1/26 - 1 hour, putt and chip
• 1/27 - 100 balls
• 1/28 - 30 minutes chipping, 18 holes par 3 pitching course.
• 1/29 - 18 holes, Los Rios GC, Plano, TX.

I shot a 94 from the blues, which overall I'm OK with. I had an abysmal start to the round. My handicap remains at 12.2.

False alarm on Lefty rules violation

When I saw Bones tend the flagstick for Phil's third shot at the San Diego Open my first thought was "He's not allowed to do that!". I distinctly recalled a recent magazine article that talked about the flag being tended and pulled for a shot from off the green, and the article was quite clear in its assertion that this was not allowed. So I looked up good ol' Rule 17 in the Rules of Gowf, dealing with "The Flagstick". Rule 17-1 deals with tending the flagstick. It states "Before making a stroke from anywhere on the course, the player may have the flagstick attended, removed or held up to indicate the position of the hole. If the flagstick is not attended, removed or held up before the player makes a stroke, it must not be attended, removed or held up during the stroke or while the player’s ball is in motion if doing so might influence the movement of the ball." So, Phil is in the right because clearly Bones was attending the flag prior to the shot. The article in question clearly deals with the situation where someone's hitting a shot that's not expected to go in, and someone runs up to jerk the flag out of the hole.

State Of The Tour

I'd be the first to admit it; I'm an absolute 100% golf geek. I read about golf and I practice golf and I watch a hell of a lot of golf on TV. Knowing I allowed myself to drop off the radar for the past six months or so, let me throw out my thoughts about what happened at the end of the 2010 season, and what my thoughts are about the 2011 season:

• I think the major winners of 2010 will have more impact on the future of professional golf than any set of major winners since 1994, when Els and Olazabal both won their first majors. We know how talented Phil is, and I think Martin, Louis, and Greame will be competing for top honors for a long time to come.
• I think no golf contest has looked better than The Open at St. Andrews in 2010, in HD. With the sun setting on the course it was absolutely gorgeous.
• I think DJ has some significant golf karma coming back his way, after the debacles at Pebble and the PGA. He'll will a lot, and he'll win big.
• I think Tiger will come back with a vengeance, and win a major and at least a couple of tour events. His game is too good, his focus too strong for him to blank out for another year. I think he wins the PGA in Atlanta.
• I think this is the year Lee Westwood just runs ramshod over the rest of the pro players the way we've gotten used to seeing Tiger do in the last decade. I'd say he wins a major and three to four tour victories. His game and his mindset is just too solid to fail at this point. I think he'll take The Open at St. George's.
• I think Martin Kaymer wins the US Open this year. It's a very Prussian setup, and nobody is better prepared to play it than he is.
• I think AK wins the Masters this year. He has the game and the mindset to make magic happen at Augusta. He has more Seve in him since, well, Seve.
• I think this is the year that the old-school PGA pros like Furyk and Stricker start to fall behind. We saw it last year with Perry. Their generation is finally gone. The tour now belongs to the likes of DJ and Sean O'Hair and Hockey Hoffman and The Smurf and Bubba.
• I think by the end of the year Rory's swing will still go down as the best in the business. And he will still look a LOT like Danny Noonan in Caddyshack, or Danny Boyd if you read golf related comic strips in the 70s like I did.
• I think Bo Van Pelt is the dark horse on the PGA Tour in 2011. He's very VERY good.

That is all.

State Of My Game

A precious few of you may actually be following this blog, and if you do you would know where this story is coming from. For the newcomers, allow me to summarize: Picked up the game around 13 in the old country (Sweden). Got to a 9 handicap by 17. Moved to the US. Played on HS and minor College teams, somewhat sporadically. Allowed non-golf life to get in the way and didn't play much for about 15 years. Had back surgery in the late fall of 2008. Bored, I asked someone to bring me the box of golf books I had in the attic. Started reading, and fell in love with golf all over again. Been working on my game fairly ardently throughout the 2009 and 2010 seasons. In 2009 I was having a hard time breaking into the 80s consistently. I'd shoot an 89 on a par 71 or a 91 on a par 72, but rarely would I beat the imaginary bogey man. For 2010 I set myself the goal of being at a 11 handicap by the end of the season, and being a sub-10 handicap by the end of the 2011 season. In 2010 I played much better. Clearly the work I did in 2009 carried over, and I started beating the bogey man with fair regularity. In mid summer I lost my job, which had a neutral impact on my golf game. I did have more time on my hands to practice and play, but I also had less money laying around the cost of practicing and playing. I had bought a card at my local driving range, and I continued to use that up, and I was able to get a couple of really good rounds in in the middle of the beautiful Texas fall. Here's another twist I threw at my game around this time: I started walking and carrying my bag, and I moved back to the blue tees from the front ones I had been playing in my beer rounds. Now, walking and carrying at age 45 is never going to be easy. I had several new playing partners ask just how old I was, and be shocked that I'm "still carrying". I did explain to them that I was "carrying AGAIN". It also takes a bit to get used to the different pace of walking the course when everybody around you is driving a cart. The first couple of holes are the toughest, then you settle into a routine. Even so, all these things considered, I played some of my best golf EVER in these rounds. I shot an 85 and an 82 from the back tees while dragging my own bag across the course, and my handicap plummeted down to a 12.2 mark. MOST satisfying. Not to feign superiority, but the only term I could come up with for these rounds is "real golf". You walk the course, you carry your bag, you play from the appropriate tees. I'm still out of work, so there's no telling what 2011 will be like. One of the key parameters that's allowed me to improve my game over the past couple of years is that I had a driving range just minutes from work. I could go there for lunch and pitch for 3o minutes, or hit a small bucket of balls. The importance of touching the clubs regularly can NOT be overstated. I still think I can get into the single digits this year, as my goal was at the outset of 2010. In addition I've added another long term goal for my game. Going into my 46:th year at a 12.2 I would like to get to a 7.4 handicap by the time I'm 50, so that I could enter into the US Senior Amateur Championship. I mean, really ... how cool would it be just to be able to compete for a spot? I love my golfing friends, and I love the game and it's players and fanatics. Until we meet again: Keep'em in the short stuff.

Well, Obama did his

President Obama delivered his "State Of The Union" address this week. And Tiger Woods is making his return to professional golf. And the kilted one had done what I hoped never to do, allow myself to fall completely off the radar into the ethereal ether. So I'm going to try to wrap my head around golf and life once again, focusing on the state of my game and the state of the tour. Some golf writers focus strictly on their own game, and tips and techniques to improve it as much as possible. Some write strictly about the tour, but as a reader I'm somewhat left to wonder about what kind of a golf game that writer enjoys on his own weekend. The good ones cover both.

Golf and Life

Well, the Kilted one has been in a bit of a slump for a few months here. It's mostly job related. Got laid off, and I've been busy selling my soul to the highest buyer. I've been keeping a very positive attitude, but it's still a drawn out and challenging time in one's life. I think men have a harder time being laid off, as on an instinctive level we feel like we're inadequate if we don't provide for our family. Sure, friends and relatives are all very nice, saying all the right things, but we still feel like sh*t. As with most everything else that happens in my life, there's a tie to golf. Several ties, actually. Firstly, I just haven't had enough time, energy, and mostly peace of mind to write about golf. Job hunting in the internet age is almost a 24/7 proposition, and it takes every bit as much of your time as having an actual job. The difference is, you leave a job to come home. You're never far away from another jobhunting step. Being out of work is tremendously tiring. On the days when I have an interview I'm just shot for the rest of the day. Science has proven that being out of work is more stressful than ANY job you can have. Then there's the peace of mind bit. Writing about golf is a luxury for me, and without having the lower rungs on my hierarchy of mental needs in place I just haven't been able to get myself to the point where it was even possible for me to put words on paper (figuratively speaking, of course). I go back to a partial round of golf I played back in 2003. I was deep in the throes of buying a new house, and my buddy was expecting his firstborn any day. We got about as far as 12 holes, and then we had to walk off the course. Our heads just weren't in the game, and if they're not 100% on the next shot there's just no way to either have fun or play well. I remember my dad saying the same thing about a couple of instances where life got in the way of a good round. I mean, that's what we love about golf, right? It's not that it's relaxing, in and of itself. Are four foot downhill putts relaxing? Are long water carries relaxing? Are plugged lies in the bunker relaxing? Of course they're not. The key is that while you worry about all those ups and downs of a round of golf you don't worry about anything else that's going on in your life. You don't, because you can't. Then my mind swings around to some of the professional tour players who have had extra-curricular things on their mind this year. Tiger and Phil are the obvious ones, but there are many many pros who have life's strikes and gutters threaten their mental 300. I've never dealt with a loved one having cancer, but I have gone through a divorce. The fact that these guys are even able to be basically competitive at all is a tremendous testament to their innate talent and strength of will. I've been very lucky through my rough spot here that it was by far the nicest time of the year in the Dallas area, and I was able to spend some time on the range and on the course. My game is actually in pretty good shape. The OU - Texas challenge in the beginning of September was the highlight, again dominated by the Sooners. After that I made a move back one tee, to the blues from the whites, and I started walking and carrying my sticks. It took a bit to find a new rhythm, but my game has flourished. I have finished the season with a couple of rounds in the low 80s, and my handicap is at 12.2. I still think about golf all the time, quite literally. I've been watching a lot of the tournaments at the end of the year, and I think the pro game is in very good shape right now. Right now I'm on a short-term consulting gig, and even though it's not permanent it's enough to stop the financial bleeding and let things break even for a bit. I'm hoping to get back into my writing. I've also read some significant golf books, and those of you who know me know how much I love golf lit. I look forward to re-acquainting myself with my old friends in the golf community. Until then, keep'em in the short stuff.