My Adventures With The Golfing Machine

This is a post I was going to have to write sooner or later. I thought I would wait until I had some idea of what The Golfing Machine says instead of none. The “none” meant trying three ties to read it and getting nowhere.

But with help from a few online blogs, and a careful re-reading, I can finally talk to you about the book without being completely ignorant. Just unignorant enough.

A comprehensive overview would take the length of three blog posts, so I’ll just allude to a few highlights, and hope you’ll hunt up a copy and see what you make of it.

The Golfing Machine (TGM), by Homer Kelley, is not really an instruction book. It’s a compendium of swing features and components, broken down in a way that allows a golfer to build a swing from the very start, based on the particular physical characteristics and movement preferences of that individual.

It does not teach one swing. Someone calculated that if all the possible combinations of catalogued features were considered, TGM offers 446 quadrillion possible swings. One of them is right for you.

Actually, that’s not where the book goes. All the book is meant to do is take the way you swing, eliminate the parts of your swing that work against you, and substitute a different part at that same point that is compatible with what you do in the rest of your swing.

Instead of learning a new swing, you take the swing you have and make a few changes here and there so the whole thing works together. Who could argue with that?

It sounds so good that you want to pitch right in, but the problem is first you have to know what those parts are that need altering, and then you have to know which alteration to make with anywhere from three to fifteen variations per part, and after you have figured all that out, it really gets complicated.

You might need professional help with that, and there are certified TGM instructors if you want to go that route. But you can do it yourself if you consider matters carefully.

My swing is now emphasizing a matter I have brought up in the blog, the hands leading the clubhead, too much. My left arm and hand are now almost completely out of the swing. TGM is helping me put the left side back in without disturbing what I have accomplished with the right. That's what this book can do for you.

Jim McLean wrote a article on TGM, praising it in general, but saying this about it. It is good for beginners and intermediate golfers, but Tour pros who latched onto it regressed. That would mean TGM is ideal for recreational golfers, but the problem with that is the book is so hard to read that you need to have a fair grounding in swing theory already to understand it and pick out the parts that might apply to your swing.

TGM is something of a cult book. If it was the be all and end all, every teacher would be using it and every pro would be teaching out of it. Clearly, that's not the case.

You might want to hunt down a copy, though, to find out what all the fuss is about. You might find some bits of wisdom that help you tremendously. The rest of it you can forget about, and that's all right, because that would be just what the author intended.

Ben Hogan's Three Right Hands

There’s a guy I play golf with occasionally who is in his 50s and new to the game. He’s small, but strong. His swing is: wind up the upper body and swing through as hard as you can with your shoulders and arms. When he connects, it’s really impressive. The other ninety percent of the time, it’s not.

He told me once that he read Ben Hogan’s book (Five Lessons) and mentioned the part where Hogan said he wished he had three right hands. Having read that book so much I almost have it memorized, I agreed that Hogan did say that.

I think my friend interpreted that as a green light to hit the ball as hard as he could with his right hand. That sure looks like what he's trying to do.

What I didn’t say, because I don’t give unsolicited advice on the golf course, is my friend needed to read the whole sentence rather than just that part.
 Hogan at that point (p. 101) was talking about the left wrist. I won’t give you the entire quote, but he said,

“...the left hand will not check or interrupt the speed with which your clubhead is traveling. There’s no danger either that the right hand will overpower the left and twist the club over. It can’t. As far as applying power goes, I wish I had three right hands!”

That’s it. You can hit as hard as you want to with your right hand IF THE LEFT WRIST IS IN THE PROPER POSITION (illustration below).

Hogan was not saying to hit the ball as if you had three right hands, period. There is a catch, and the catch is the shape of the left wrist.

The right hand turning over the left was my problem exactly for many years. I solved it by changing my grip and by giving my hands less responsibility through impact.

What I have is a flat left wrist at impact. Having that wrist bend outward like Hogan showed is beyond my ability. If you can get your left wrist flat (Hogan) and facing the target (Trevino) at impact, you’re way ahead of the game.

But back to the book. Hitting hard only makes sense if you are sure you can keep the clubface aligned while you’re doing it. Hogan showed you in Five Lessons how he did it.

A shorter way of saying it is, square first, hard second.

Christmas shopping in high gear

Here are two reasons why you should buy Bob's books for Christmas presents:

1. If you do the things that are in these books, you will become a better golfer.

2. It's the easiest thing in the world to do! Just click on over to The Recreational Golfer and there they are, just waiting for you.

Go ahead. You can do it.

The Golfing Self -- Kindle Edition

I'm happy to announce that my latest book, The Golfing Self, is now available in a Kindle edition.

You may get your copy at Amazon for $7.50.

It will change everything about the way you play.

The Golfing Self Contest

Contest! Prizes! I would like you to enter my contest to win a copy of my new book on the mental game, The Golfing Self.

Send me a description of your worst hole ever: a hole that was so bad and so out of character that it has become legendary in your golfing career.

I'm looking for the perfect storm of terrible shot-making, brain-dead decision making, and once-in-a-lifetime bad luck. A high "I am not making this up" factor will help.

Keep your description under 300 words. Tell us shot by shot what happened. We must be able to count the strokes with you as we read along.

Put your entry in the body of an e-mail message (no attachments, please) to OLP@wvi.com by midnight, April 22, 2013.

I will contact the winner privately for mailing information.

The winning entry will be published in this blog, and attributed in this format: John S., City, State.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

The Golfing Self

The fundamental question of the mental game is how to be mentally prepared to select and hit the right shot, and to maintain that ability for the duration of the round.

Read how to get that done in The Golfing Self, coming in late April.




Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

The Golfing Self

In late April, I'll be introducing my new golf book, The Golfing Self.

It now has its own web page, where you can find out more about what it has to teach you. There is nothing in the mental game literature like this one.

Please take look at http://www.therecreationalgolfer.com.

Golf Rules in Plain English

Yesterday morning I was trying to find a subject for today's post and coming up empty. Normally I write these about a week ahead of time, but by December 9, I had nothing for December 10. So I decided to take a trip to the library and browse the golf section to see if I could get inspired. Bingo.

As I was browsing through our golf collection, I saw a small book titled, The Rules of Golf in Plain English. That sounds good to me. This is a new book, written by Jeffrey S. Kuhn, an attorney and volunteer USGA rules official, and Bryan A. Garner, also an attorney and one who gives seminars to lawyers on how to write in, you guessed it, plain English.

Now this is something I have always imagined myself, doing, but I'm not that good of a technical writer, and the project really needs someone who has an expert's grasp of the rules. Not me, either.

This book is so great. First of all, they changed the passive "the player" to the active "you." It's not "the player" who can and can't do these things, it's "you!" And they let that be said.

Let's take a complicated rule, playing the wrong ball. Here's how the USGA says it:

15-3b. The competitor must correct his mistake by playing the correct ball or by proceeding under the Rules. If he fails to correct his mistake before making a stroke on the next teeing ground or, in the case of the last hole of the round, fails to declare his intention to correct his mistake before leaving the putting green, he is disqualified.

Here's how Kuhn and Garner say it:
15-3(c) You must correct the mistake by playing your ball. If you don't correct your mistake before you make a stroke from the next tee--or, in the case of the last hole of the round, don't declare your intention to correct your mistake before leaving the putting green--you're disqualified.

Subtle differences, yes, but the second one reads is more direct and makes it simpler to understand exactly what YOU have to do.

At the start of every rule, the defined terms it refers to are explicitly listed instead of being highlighted in the text. Rule headings are re-worded. Rules themselves are broken up and reorganized so you don't have to wade through what you don't need to read to find what you do.

The general penalty for violation of a rule is two strokes, or loss of a hole, but there is an appendix which lists the one-stroke penalties. That is very convenient.

Keep in mind that this is not an official rule book. It has no legal status on the golf course. You should have an official copy of the rules in your bag and refer to it when there are questions. You should also carry a copy of The Rules of Golf in Plain English with you to be sure you understand what the rules actually want you to do.



Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

A Round of Golf With Tommy Armour

One of the first, and certainly the most famous, book on course management is A Round of Golf With Tommy Armour, which was published in 1959. Armour was a champion golfer from the 1920s and 30s, who became a well-known instructor and the author of several instruction books that were definitive in their day and are still valid in many respects.

Armour takes a mythical player, Bill, who is about to give up the game because nothing he tries seems to work out. Armour agrees to play nine holes with him and his two playing companions during which time Armour will give Bill careful counseling on what shot to hit and how to hit it.

He won't offer advice on golfing technique, just on how to play the game.

The points below are the ones Armour emphasized (page references to the 1959 edition of his book).

1. Tee up from the correct side of the tee box. (15) This means to tee up on the side of trouble and hit away from it.

2. Do not play shots with high risk and little reward. (25) Do I have to explain?

The Short Game's Four Basic Shots

As varied as the short game can be, you can simplify it by learning just four shots that will cover over 80 percent of the short shots you have to hit. The foundation of anybody's short game is a set of stock shots that can be relied on to cover the short game situations that you come across most often.

Starting at greenside, and working away from the hole in several yardage zones, what I call the Four Basic Shots of the short game can make your short game start producing pars where you used to be getting bogeys and doubles.

Vector Putting

Most people will tell you that reading greens is an art that can never be reduced to science. While that is mostly true, there is more science in it than you might imagine. Say you're on an idealized green that is perfectly flat, but a bit tilted. It is entirely possible, knowing the speed of the green, the amount of its tilt, and the speed of the putt, to calculate the exact path to the hole.

In 1984, H.A. Templeton published a book titled Vector Putting that lays out a plan which shows you how to analyze a green in just those terms.　The key is something that Templeton calls the zero-break line. This is the line along which a putt would go straight into the hole, even on a sloping green.

The golfer can imagine a vector laid on the green along this line, extending above the hole, one end of which hovers above the center of the hole. The other end of the vector, sitting on the green, marks the spot where the golfer should aim the putt, given the degree of slope, speed of the green, and speed of the putt, for the ball to roll into the hole. This spot applies regardless of where the ball is on the green.