GOLFERS

It’s always amazing to see balls follow the line perfectly on big breaking putts to the centre of the hole.

If you’ve ever wondered how they do that it’s all the work of Mark Sweeney, who has adapted his methods of reading greens so they can be used by everyday golfers.

Sweeney is in Australian at the moment conducting a number of public clinics teaching his award-winning “Aimpoint Golf” system along with his senior instructor for Europe, Jamie Donaldson, and selected Top Australian PGA Professionals.

There are still some spots available at the Sydney clinics next week at St Michaels Golf Club on Monday 16th and at Terrey Hills Golf Club on Tuesday 17th.

Seven clinics are then scheduled for Victoria from January 18 (The Dunes GC) to January 22 (at Albert Park, Kingwood and Sandhurst).

“Participants at the AimPoint Fundamentals clinic will learn which factors control the break of a putt, how to identify them, and how to begin reading putts based on position,” Sweeney said this week.

The AimPoint Green-Reading Method takes the guesswork out of how much break to play for any putt regardless of length and number of breaks.

The method shows how putting is predictable and reveals the most effective and reliable ways to determine the direction and precise amount of break for any putt.

When Sweeney realised the green-reading method that won a Sports Emmy Award (for technical acheivement) for the Golf Channel had a far more beneficial application for all golfers, he developed an AimPoint teaching method that applied his mathematics to all greens, depending on their Stimpmeter speed and slope.

The Australian clinics will demonstrate:

•          How to accurately identify slope

•          How slope direction and grade affect break

•          How your position on the slope influences break and speed

•          How to identify your position on the slope

•          How to determine precise break amounts based on position

•          How to handle changing or multiple slopes

•          How position relates to speed control

•          How to determine optimum approach shot strategies

A full schedule of clinics can be found on the Aimpoint Golf website here.

The cost of the clinics is $220 for adults and $140 for juniors.

PROBABLY one of the worst things you can do in golf is watch a video on a new golf swing concept immediately before you’re due to tee off in a competition.

Even worse when you watch several videos, read instruction articles, and then a short time later find yourself standing over a ball on the first tee with your head swimming with all sorts of swing thoughts.

Paralysis by analysis, they aptly call it.

I should know it is bad as I think I have done it quite often.

One of the perils of this job is the need to regularly check a whole heap of golf websites and it is often so hard to ignore the lure of that interesting looking link to a magic cure to all your swing problems – just one simple new move and you’ll have countless more metres of the tee and dead accurate shots.

Along with the dross, there is a lot of very valuable advice out there – great stuff to take to the practice range and try out before you try and implement it in the middle of a competition round.

Yesterday I did it again. One quick peak at a link that caught my interest and that was it.

In my defence it was stuff from a source I have looked at quite a lot previously. So it was not all “new” to me and what really peaked by interest is that I finally “got” what was being said about a particular aspect of the swing.

Running late, I slammed the laptop shut, raced to my local course, hurriedly joined my playing companions on the first tee and – keeping this “new” technique in mind – promptly shot 25 stableford points on the front nine.

As I started analysing my success and what was happening with my swing things started to tighten up and became  a lot less pretty on the back nine…..but we don’t need to go into that at the moment.

The thing is I know this is something I know I can work with. I don’t want it to be a passing fad and be thinking in a few weeks time: what was that thing I was doing with my right foot a few weeks back?

The material I was looking at was all related to the new website Secret in the Dirt, a collaborative venture between Canadian Mike Maves (known across the internet as Sevam1) Australian golfing great Steve Elkington and Masters Champion Jackie Burke.

Secret in the Dirt is now a growing golfing community that originally arose when Maves, not a golf pro but just a guy with a great swing who immersed himself in the teachings of golfing legends like Ben Hogan and Moe Norman, posted a series of amateur videos on YouTube. (Warning: the cameraman is seriously annoying)

Elkington, and numerous of other experts were impressed by what they saw, and Sevam1 became something of an internet sensation.

The Secret in the Dirt title gives clue to what it is all about, basically swinging from the ground up – and to try and distil it quickly into a kernel Sevam makes much of the fact that Ben Hogan went to great lengths to have an extra spike added to the centre of his right golf shoe.

That’s the spot I was concentrating on yesterday morning when I was hitting my equal best front nine stableford score.

Rather than hip hopping all over the place trying to improve my swing and handicap, that’s the spot I intend to keep concentrating on.

There’s now a newly updated ebook of course (I’m going to start on the full version today) but if you are interested there is a heap of videos and other material freely available on the Secret in the Dirt website or on YouTube.

As the straight talking Sevam says in the original YouTube video below:

Some people are going to think this is quackery, but it is the simplest bloody thing in the world.”

I’ll keep you posted on how I  progress.

On the printed page it is not always easy to see exactly what he is saying and misunderstandings can arise.

The following four and a half minute video uses more modern means to simply explain and demonstrate how to keep the golf club on plane from setup to impact and how common mistakes happen.

The video uses an innovative, physical, free standing pane set up behind the golfer and added graphics to simply demonstrate and make clear its concepts.

You find many such videos and clips on places like YouTube and elsewhere but the helpful props here and plain talk I thought make this well worth a look.

The instructor is John Jordon of the PGA Venezuela – EduGolf Foundation (the wonders of the internet) who says if you are able to keep the correct club angle throughout the swing you are well on the way to making solid, consistent golf shots.

The video itself is from a site called MaxYourGame – with which ASG has no association – but which we visited and seems harmless enough.

Green says many older golfers, including some of the senior tour pros, unconsciously start dropping their chins closer to the ball and this prevents them from making a full body turn and a full, unimpeded swing.

In this YouTube video, presented by GolfZone, Green explains this fault and provides some other senior golfer swing improvement suggestions. Green, a twice Victorian PGA Champion and winner of more than 40 Pro-Ams, has been Head Professional of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club for 23 years.

The Couples swing is often described as “like butter”, “silky smooth” and the like– all the things you would just love to have your swing compared to.

This video is a detailed analysis by top US coach and sometime Couples contemporary Wayne Defrancesco, who points out that while Couples has some unorthodox moves he is “a freak” with outstanding rhythm.

“Everybody would love to be able to just stand up to the ball, get the club what appears to be completely out of whack and then just flush it down the fairway,” Defrancesco says.

As he says, “Everyone would love to be Freddie”.

HUNTER MAHAN, who collecting his second US PGA Tour title with a win at the Phoenix Open this week, credits a lot of his success to Australian born sports psychologist Neale Smith.

Mahan says after his second placing at the 2002 US Amateur he always knew he had the game to win on the tour but needed help with his mental approach.

He turned to NSW south coast born Smith, a former tour player who has worked with a number of top professional golfers.

Neale recommends the following pre-shot routine to help remain cool and play consistent golf.

Step 1:

Collect the appropriate information for the shot. For example, gauge the yardage, the wind, pin placement, etc.
Step 2:

Select the shot that fits the situation and is also something that you’re comfortable with at that time. If you’re not playing your best today, be more conservative.
Step 3:

Imagine or describe what you are about to do. This will help create the intention of what you are going to do.
Step 4:

Connect to the feel needed to produce the shot. Most players connect with their practice swings. Some don’t rehearse at all. Find what works for you.
Step 5:

Aim your clubface, body, eyes and mind. These four key elements must be aligned to start the ball on the line you’ve planned.
Step 6:

Make a trusting motion using the cue that best helps you hit the shot you have planned. It may be a target cue, swing thought, swing feel, rhythm cue, or nothing at all — whatever works best for you. Direct your attention to what you want to do and how you’re going to do it. Fear of the potential result may get in the way of making a smooth, trusting motion.

Comment:

This all sounds like a lot and the last thing a club golfer wants to see is a player in front taking an age with every shot, but an effective routine can be accomplished in a short period of time – many pros only take around 11 to 12 seconds on their pre shot routines. They can even start as you are walking up to the ball.

The whole point is you are approaching every shot with a positive mental attitude, rather than standing their dithering with unwanted worries, distractions or mental wanderings.

Jeffrey Mann over at the Perfect Golf Swing Review website has published a new “review paper” that he believes may be of particular interest to inflexible senior golfers.

As we have reported before, Jeff is a retired doctor who for the past several years has devoted himself to analysing and detailing all aspects of the golf swing.

As we’ve also said before, and as Jeff readily warns, his material is very detailed and is not for the faint hearted. If you are looking for a quick golf swing fix this definitely isn’t the place.

If however, you are interested in thoroughly understanding or continuing to explore the modern golf swing (or maybe you’re an “expert” and would beg to differ on some aspects) this is a destination where you can spend hours going through the material.

One of the great things about Perfect Golf Swing Review is that Jeff has trawled the internet (and the golf libraries) to come up with relevant YouTube videos, clips and link to help explain each concept.

Jeff’s (relatively) new paper is titled “Left Arm Swinging, Right Arm Swinging and Hitting.”

Jeff has detailed the difference between “Swingers” (Tiger Woods and the majority of pros) and “Hitters” (Kenny Perry) before but in this detailed review he also looks at “Right Arm Swinging” which, he says, may be beneficial for some senior golfers to consider.

Jeff says the right arm swinging method may be very suitable to older

inflexible golfers or flexible golfers who swing better when using their dominant right hand as their major power source.

“I believe that right arm swinging is particularly suitable for golfers who cannot pivot well due to a lack of torso/spinal flexibility and who cannot easily keep their left arm straight throughout the backswing and downswing,” Jeff writes.

“I believe that a well executed pivot action is essential for a left arm swinger, but less critical for a right arm swinger, who doesn’t use a pivot-drive action to power the swing.”

So older golfers with a stiff spine, or as Jeff describes it, little “hula hula” fleixibility may find this swing perfect.

Perfect Golf Swing Review Right Arm Swinging Paper

As a simple fix, Crenshaw says nine out of 10 golfers hold the putter too tightly.

“Putting is fingers and hands and eyes and imagination,” he says in the video below. “Knowing what your backstroke and follow through will do and how to get it up there in the right way.

“But nine times out of 10 I think most people just grab the club too tightly,” the 57 year old says.

“If they will just back off their grip pressure just a little bit, what it does is make the club head feel heavier and therefore it swings more.

“The tighter you hold the club the less apt that putter head will swing.

“So it should be held as a delicate instrument because you are doing delicate work.”

“You have to be yourself to putt”

“Anything works in putting. You have to be yourself to putt. I think Harvey Penick made the best statement I ever heard he said never look like anyone else when you are putting.

“I always thought that was interesting because you’ll see a successful technique and then you’ll want to try that.

There’s fine putters in the world and they always seem like the ball is just going around the cup. You know, they are not going way past.

“But what that is is a trust in their own ability. They’re not worried about style or technique.

“There is no substitute for hitting the ball solidly and staying down through it”

“The thing is there is no substitute for hitting the ball solidly and staying down through it. But you know most people can get over it. It’s just stand over the ball naturally.

“So, be natural be yourself but the pace of the putt is most often more important that the line. Try for pace, pace is vital.”

What is the ruling?

1. Tom is penalized two strokes and must replace the proper ball on the mark before putting out
2. Tom is penalized one stroke and must re-take the putt using the original ball
3. Tom is penalized two strokes and the putt counts

ANSWER:  (3) Unfortunately, a penalty of two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play is incurred. The player would have substituted a ball when not permitted to do so (as with a lost ball or ball hit out of bounds). According to Rule 15-2, the second ball would become the ball in play and the penalty ascribed by the applicable rule would be incurred.

(This golf rules quiz item supplied by Cliff Nunn, a VGA state accredited rules official and proprietor of  Golf Clubs Down Under.)