November 2007

I played golf last Friday with a group of guys at my club, all of whom are new golf buddies to me, as I just joined this past spring.

One of my playing partners was an emergency room physician who is a 4 handicap. Hits it a mile, but was commiserating about his difficulty inside 100 yards or so – he expressed real problems controlling distance on his wedge shots.

After complementing me on a couple of good pitch shots I had made, he realized that I was “that wedge guy” he had heard about.

So, he asked me what I thought was keeping his short game from being up to the standard of his long game. You can imagine I get that often, but I totally enjoy trying to give someone guidance that will help their scoring. Of course, on-course fixes are difficult, and I expressed that to him, but he wanted it anyway.

In his case, as I see so often, his short game was too much in the hands, that is, he was manipulating the clubhead back to the ball with a full wrist cock and “flip” of the hands to get the club back to the ball.

This leads to inconsistent contact and very poor distance control. My suggestion to him was to feel like the wrists were not cocking at all at the end of his backswing, and that he should release the club with his body rotation, rather than with his hands.

I shared a mental picture with him where you feel like the shaft of the club is pointed straight upward as you reach the end of your backswing, rather than to hinge so that it points back toward the target.  (It really doesn’t do this, but it will feel like it.)

This is what we call “quiet hands”, and it is the mark of a good wedge player. One way to achieve that is to focus your mind on your grip pressure. You should feel control of the club in the fingers of your left hand (for right hand players), with little or no pressure felt in your “pincher” – formed by the thumb, forefinger and middle finger – of either hand.

Try this and let me know your results.

It’s often said that when you are only a few feet off the green, and the lie allows it, an average putt will end up closer than a good chip.

Well, that may be true, but here’s a twist – you don’t always have to “putt” with your putter. That’s right, you can “putt” with any club in your bag, and you can get some outstanding results by doing so.

Picture this: Your ball is only about five feet off the green, but the grain is growing against you and the collar grass is not very smooth. One side of your brain says “putt it”, but the lie isn’t that encouraging.

Not a problem. Just choose a different club to “putt it” with.

You may be surprised how well you can “putt” from the fringe with a four or five-iron, hybrid, or even shorter iron, when the pin is cut closer.

Here are the keys to executing this shot:

• Take your normal putting stance and set up
• Grip down on the club since it’s longer than your putter
• Put the ball a little further back in your stance than you do when you putt
• Most importantly, grip the club much lighter than you do with your putter, because your putter is the shortest, but heaviest club in your bag
• Make your normal putting stroke and watch for great results

This is a wonderful scoring shot when putting from off the green is an option, but the lie really doesn’t allow it to be done with confidence. 

If you’ll spend just a few minutes around the putting/chipping green with this shot – experimenting with two to three different clubs, you’ll quickly add a new shot to your arsenal.

As always, let me know how this works for you, and what other shots you’d like me to offer my insight and experience on.

Thanksgiving was always a great holiday at our household.  My father was a man of faith and was clear in expressing his gratitude for all the wonderful things in his life.

Thanksgiving marked the beginning of the “holiday season”, which culminated with those wonderful smells, sights and sounds of Christmas.

With all that goes on in our lives, sometimes we forget just how much we have to be thankful for. For me, the list is quite long.

To start, seeing this little fledgling idea of a short game company reach so many people and make a difference in so many golfers’ games is rewarding. The emails I get weekly provide the constant reassurance that we are doing the right thing by building quality wedges and providing the encouragement I can through this blog and the EIDOLON newsletter, which we just renamed “The SCoR Zone”.

But that’s just icing on this wonderful cake called life. I am thankful that at nearly 56 years old, I still have excellent health and can enjoy life to the fullest.

I’m thankful that I have a great family and the most extraordinary circle of friends a man could ever hope for. And that as I look forward, I just see all that getting better and better.

And I’m thankful that I was born in the greatest country in the history of the world, and that in spite of its troubles, it still is the “land of opportunity” for anyone who will work hard and take risks.

It’s kind of “in” these days to bash the U.S., but where else in the world could you live the lives we do, with the freedoms and opportunities we have?

We must always acknowledge and be thankful that this freedom is a gift to us from God, protected for over two centuries by the selfless sacrifice and service of hundreds of thousands of young men and women who choose to wear the uniform of one of our armed forces.I am eternally grateful to each and every one of those brave true heroes of every generation.

As you enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner and the coming Christmas season, please stop regularly and say a prayer of thanks that our country instills that kind of love and devotion in our young people. And pray that each and every young soldier will return to their families unharmed, with a sense of pride that they have given us that much more assurance of freedom and liberty.

All of us at EIDOLON wish you and yours a very warm and joyous Thanksgiving.