Solutions for when you’re between yardages

You probably feel pretty good when you’re at the perfect yardage for the club in your hands. But what about those annoying yardages, like when a full 7-iron is going to be too much, and a full 8-iron might not get there? Or when you’re 45 yards from the green and your full lob wedge flies 60? I’ve seen many golfers struggle in these situations because they swing too hard or decelerate the club to try to control distance, and neither really works. If you want to hit more shots pin-high, give the methods I’ve used on the PGA Tour a try. Let’s start with in-between yardages. Here I’m swinging a 7-iron. I normally hit it 185 yards, so if I have 175 to the pin, I stand slightly closer to the ball and narrow my stance a few inches.

I also grip down an inch or so. When I swing, the only adjustment is to stop my backswing just short of my usual top position. Then I make my normal through-swing. I don’t change my speed coming through the ball. That’s key.

Swing speed also is important when you have less than a full wedge into a green. This is the area of the course where I’ve noticed amateurs struggle the most. Part of the reason is because they don’t have a consistent plan for how to handle these short shots. If you don’t have a strategy, it’s hard to know what to practice. And without practice, you’re going to struggle on the course.

The way I handle these shots is to regulate the length of the backswing depending on the length of the shot—shorter distances mean shorter backswings. But the thing to remember is, just like with in-between yardages on longer shots, you have to swing through the ball at the same pace no matter the distance.

I practice three swing lengths with my sand wedge that are less than full, so I have three distances locked in when I’m on the course. If I stop my backswing when the shaft is around the height of my hips (above), I know the ball will go 35 yards. When my forearms are parallel to the ground, it’s going 60 yards. And when my hands stop at my shoulders, it’s going to go 80 yards. Again, I can’t stress enough that you never want to slow down as you come through. It leads to inconsistent strikes.

“KEEP YOUR SWING SPEED UP ON SHORTER SHOTS.”

For even better results, add this to your range sessions: Hit 10 balls each with your backswing stopping at three different lengths. Make note of how far the ball goes with each, and rely on those swings to produce the right yardages when you get on the course. You’ll be a lot more confident in hitting half-wedge shots pin-high.—with Keely Levins

SOURCE:  Golfdigest

Hosung Choi and his unconventional swing leave Pebble Beach after earning respect

Hosung Choi’s weeklong parade around Monterey Peninsula finished in bitter rain Saturday at Pebble Beach, the conclusion accompanied by a missed cut in the Crosby Clambake known officially as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Yet the 45-year-old from a small fishing village in South Korea, who took up golf when he was 25, couldn’t stop smiling as the waves crashed the craggy coastline. He had won the lottery, after all, and his first trip to American soil and his first start on the PGA Tour left a lasting impression not only for Choi but for those entertained by his affable personality, showmanship and outrageous follow-throughs full of twists and turns that have made him an internet sensation.

On the scenic stages of Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course, Choi was the biggest star in a tournament filled with celebrities and some of the game’s best players, his festive galleries larger than those following Bill Murray, Wayne Gretzky, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth.

“I definitely felt the love from my fans,” Choi said through an interpreter.

Choi returned the love. He acknowledged most every shout out from his followers, many coming in his native tongue. He signed tons of autographs and posed for hundreds of selfies. He was Mickelson without flashing the thumbs up.

Playing on a sponsor’s exemption, he showed his appreciation by plunking down his own cash to buy clothing featuring the tournament logo and wore his new duds through 54 holes. He literally ran to the media center for his pre-tournament presser to make sure he wasn’t late.

And Saturday he gave each of his playing partners – actor Chris O’Donnell, his teammate, and pro Jerry Kelly and his teammate, Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers – one of his clubhead covers that feature a silhouette of his one-legged follow-through.

“They were such great people,” Choi said. “And even when I had a bad shot or was struggling, they encouraged me, and they gave me words of advice out there. And I tried to give them a gift to remind them of me.”

Choi, Rodgers said, was the gift that kept on giving.

“We had him over to the house, him and his family. We had a blast,” Rodgers said. “There’s obviously some loss in translation with the language barrier, but we had his translator there, and we just had a blast. He’s a great guy. I think it’s great for the tournament and for golf. Obviously, his swing gets a lot of attention, but he’s a good player. It was a lot of fun to play with him.”

While the record will show he missed the cut by 11 shots after rounds of 72-75-77, Choi wasn’t out of his element in a week full of elements featuring hail, showers and bone-chilling temps. The four-time winner on the Japanese and Korean tours was baffled by the Poa annua greens but was far from a sideshow, as he impressed Kelly, who has six victories on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions.

“I really love the action,” Kelly said. “It made me want to get my leg into it just a little bit and see if I can get a little extra. His fundamentals at impact are pretty darn good, and he can shift it and roll it. So, there’s no reason that he can’t compete.”

On Sunday night, Choi left for Guam for a photo shoot and doesn’t know when he’ll play next. While he was disappointed in his play on the Monterey Peninsula, Choi was far from downcast about his future and said he hopes to receive more invitations to play on the PGA Tour.

“If I’m lucky enough to get another invite, I’ll be happy to play in any other tournament,” Choi said. “I learned a lot from this experience.

“I will continue to dream.”

SOURCE:  USAtoday

Who Knew??

A Putt Measured at 140 feet and 2 3/4 inches on the 18th at St. Andrews was sunk by Bob Cook in the International Fourball Pro Am Tournament on October 1, 1976

What was your longest putt?

Golf is right around the corner!

An Easy Accuracy Tip For Consistency

Every bad result in golf can be traced back to a root cause. If you’re struggling to hit accurate drives, the issue is a lack of clubface control.

Many amateurs start their backswings by whipping the driver way inside the target line and opening the face. From there, they re-route the club on a looping path that comes into the ball from outside the target line—the classic over-the-top move—with an open face in relation to the path. You can guess what happens next. The ball slices right of the target. If by some luck or last-second adjustment they can close the face, the ball flies on a straight line but left of the target. How many times have you heard another golfer get frustrated after setting up to hit a drive that flies left to right—and presumably in the fairway—only to see the ball go dead left and into the trees?

If a round of golf for you is constant guesswork of where the ball might end up, you can improve your accuracy if you fix the cause and control the clubface better through impact. It starts by making a better takeaway. No more whipping the club inside. Instead, pretend the clubface has vision, and its job is to swing back while keeping its eyes on the ball. In the photos above, my club starts squarely behind the ball and does not rotate open in the takeaway. Copy this move. I want you to keep it staring at the ball as long as you can when you take it back.

What you’ll find is that this gets you to make a backswing where your club, hands, arms and body all turn together. This is the type of synchronized movement that allows you to control the clubface.

Ideally, it should return to the ball facing your target, and your shot will fly straight. Even marginal improvements in clubface control will reduce the dispersion of your off-line hits. You’ll be in play a lot more often. — With Ron Kaspriske

MY TRICK FOR HOLING ALL THE SHORT ONES
You’ve probably heard someone tell you to keep your head still when you’re on the green—especially if you’re trying to hole a short putt.

The advice is well intended. The less you move, the less chance you will twist the putterface open or closed and miss the putt. No steering! Unfortunately, locking down your head can add a degree of tension and prevent you from making a confident, relaxed stroke. Since we’re on the subject of vision on this page, I’ve got a better way to help you control the putter as you make your stroke. Instead of thinking about keeping your head still, your swing thought should be keep my eyes still. You’ll notice right away that it has the same effect of minimizing body movement, but it doesn’t add extra tension to the stroke.

David Leadbetter, a Golf Digest Teaching Professional, runs 32 academies worldwide.

SOURCE:  Golfdigest

Justin Rose, Adam Scott hit $50M milestone together

Justin Rose won at Torrey Pines. Adam Scott challenged him to the final hole. And thanks to that 1-2 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open, both surpassed $50 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour.

It’s a feat achieved by only five other players. These days, it’s little more than a monetary milestone.

But it was fitting they did it together.

Born 14 days apart in July 1980, they have been great friends since they tussled in South Africa at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in January 2001. Both were 20. Scott made a 4-foot birdie putt on the last hole to beat Rose and win for the first time as a pro. Oddly enough — or maybe not — Rose won his first professional title a year later in the same tournament.

What makes the timing so appropriate that both joined the $50 million club on the same day is that their PGA Tour careers effectively began together, with a little help from the men who now run the PGA Tour (commissioner Jay Monahan) and the PGA of America (chief executive Seth Waugh).

Waugh at the time was CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, the title sponsor of a new tournament that had the Tiger Woods Foundation as the charitable arm. Monahan was hired as the tournament director.

Monahan mentioned using a special exemption for international players on an English kid who had had a good British Open, turned pro and missed 20 consecutive cuts before getting his career on track. Waugh already was aware he was talking about Rose, who had won on three tours (Europe, South Africa, Japan) the previous year.

And then Waugh really got to know him.

“We get to the pro-am draw party Wednesday night at the statehouse in Boston,” Waugh said. “It was a formal deal. Mitt Romney was the governor, and we’re all giving our suit speeches. There’s this tall kid by the seafood bar eating shrimp and looking lonely. I walk up to him and said: ‘How are you doing? Are you Justin Rose?’ I said, ‘What are you doing here?’

“He said Deutsche Bank was nice enough to give him an exemption and he thought he would come up and thank somebody,” Waugh said. “He was staying all the way in Providence. I said, ‘You just did.’ But that’s Justin. No agent, nobody telling him what to do. He ended finishing third. And the rest is history.”

The history between Scott and Rose was just getting started.

They have piled up victories around the world, amassing long streaks of winning. Scott went 14 consecutive years with at least one victory worldwide and has 27 for his career. Rose won Sunday for the 22nd time worldwide, extending his streak to 10 consecutive years with at least one victory, including his gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

They now are neighbors at Albany in the Bahamas, both married with two children.

They each have won one major, which they won consecutively.

Scott finally delivered Australia a green jacket when he won the 2013 Masters. Rose sent him a text message of congratulations, which prompted this famous reply from Scott: “This is our time.”

Two months later, Rose won the U.S. Open at Merion.

He had practiced the week before the Masters with Scott in the Bahamas, even played a couple of rounds together.

“I took his money both times,” Rose said.

And then Scott won the Masters, which made the text exchange really hit home.

Indeed, it was their time, and they kept going. Scott reached No. 1 in the world in the spring of 2014. Rose reached No. 1 in the world late last summer, and the Englishman extended his lead atop the world ranking with his two-shot victory at Torrey Pines.

Waugh still thinks about that Monday afternoon at the TPC Boston, where Scott and Rose spent the entire week together, at restaurants and on the leaderboard. They have won so much and done so well that money doesn’t define them.

In this case, it was simply a reminder of where it all began.

SOURCE:  USAToday