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Nicklaus urges golf ball to be "rolled back" - There's a very interesting article by Jack Nicklaus in the March issue of Golf Digest called "I've Been Thinking." One of the points he usually makes in articles like this is that, in his opinion, the modern ball goes too far and has changed the game for the worse. As he says in this article, "My greatest concern, because I believe it has the most effect on the most parts of the game, is the golf ball."

According to Nicklaus, after about 60 years in which the game (and equipment) stayed pretty much the same, in the 1980s and 90s the game of golf started to change dramatically. In the 80s it was the introduction of metal headed drivers and "woods", and in the 90s it was changes in golf ball technology. Both changes let players hit the ball farther.

Golfers at all levels like to have their egos stroked, but the truth is, a guy like Fred Funk does not add 30 or 40 yards to his drives by working out or by improving his swing. These increased distances are mostly a result of "technology" changes. It is a familiar refrain, but for guys like Nicklaus who design courses this has meant the classic old courses aren't long enough anymore.

We lesser mortals have come to take these ongoing "improvements" for granted because we think it levels the playing field between good players and not-so-good ones -- it makes us think we can become better golfers by simply buying new clubs or using a different ball.

The irony is that just the opposite has happened. It is a well-known fact that high handicap players do not get the same benefit out of technology improvements as do better players. While a pro might be able to hit different balls different distances, your average hacker doesn't see these increases because he or she doesn't have a consistent enough swing and can't generate the club head speed required to take advantage of the new balls.

It is a bit different with clubs, since larger metal heads and game improvement irons mean fewer duffed shots. But I suspect this advantage is again over-estimated for higher-handicap players. For a bogey golfer playing a 380 hard hole driving the ball 200 yards rather than 180 still won't produce very many pars. Why? Because he still can't make the 180 yard approach shot. So he's just as far ahead using a 5 iron off the tee.

So technology improvements have actually widened the gap between the pros and the schmos. And to add insult to injury courses are now being made tougher and longer to accommodate the 5 or 10% of golfers who are "big hitters."

At the root of the issue is the way golf is driven by marketing at all levels from recreational to professional. The inability of the golfing poobahs at the USGA and R&A to control the "improvements" has meant that golf has become a consumption driven sport like no other. And the chance of this changing in the foreseeable future are slim to none.

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Golf Workouts Can Transform Your Game

by Mike Pedersen, Golf Fitness Expert

I’m sure by now you’ve heard most of the professional players; both men and women actively participate in golf workouts. It’s no secret. But why then do most amateur golfers ignore this? Is it because it seems like work? Or, does the thought of actually breaking a sweat get you tired already?

Either way…the proof is in the bag. The number one player in the world, Vijay Singh, does his golf workouts all the way through Sunday of each tournament. Does it look like it’s hurting his game? I don’t think so. Back in 1997, a young, very athletic golfer came on the professional scene and blew everyone away. I think you know who I’m talking about.

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As reported in a previous post, this summer Judy and I visited Prince Edwared Island and Cape Breton (in Nova Scotia) to play some of the highly rated courses in that neck of the woods.

While in PEI we stayed at the Rustico Resort -- a unique golf resort where the no frills rooms are clean and roomy and very reasonably priced.

And the golf is free when you stay at the resort!

Unfortunately we only had time for one round on the home course because we had planned junkets to Crowbush Cove, and Dundarave.

The course was a lot of fun and in awfully good shape with thousands of trees and the kind of perennials you are likely to find in your own flower gardens. Both the resort and the golf course are the personal projects of the resort owners, John and Martha Langdale, who purchased the property in 1980 when it was little more than a potato field with a few ramshackle buildings.

If you are considering a trip to PEI and especially if you want to combine it with a golfing excursion, this is a perfect place to stay.

The resort has its own private beach along with a swimming pool and tennis courts. It is within minutes of many top notch restaurants, a number of which specialize in lobster dinners.

The resort is located near South Rustico, less than 30 minutes from Charlottetown, 15 minutes from the beaches on the north shore, and about 20 minutes from Cavendish, famous for its Anne of Green Gables exhibits.

Here is an interesting article featuring Rustico Resort

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We set another new record for winter golf - Since the real golf season ended around the third week of November our group has been heading out to Burlington Springs, located about 15 minutes from Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville.

Winter golf. What can I say?

For the first time since dinosaurs were roaming our land, golfers all across eastern Canada and the U.S. are taking advantage of the unusual opportunity to play golf in the middle of winter. This is pretty rare in Ontario, but, hey! with no snow on the ground, and temperatures hovering around 10 celsius, rare is a good thing.

It rained hard for about 15 minutes. Now that's golf!

Every weekend is a new record for our group. Last Saturday (January 6/07) it was raining lightly with the temperature hovering between 6 and 8 degrees -- well above the usual TT (tolerability threshold) for hard core Ontario golfers. The course was booked solid all day, as it has been most weekends since November.

I forced myself to take out the camera and shoot a few pics -- just to prove we actually did it.

Other things he's "blended" - an iPod, Coke can, crow bar, hockey pucks... you get the picture.

After one particularly bad round when I flubbed a number of chips that ended up costing me several strokes, I decided a bit of dedicated practice was in order. So last Friday I headed out to a local range with just one club - my sand wedge - to see if I could figure out my problems (and yes, I know the sand wedge is not always the best club to chip with.)

That little bit of practice helped a lot. The next day I even made two fairly unlikely chip-ins.

So yes, the short game is very important when it comes to scoring. And yes, it is relatively easy to make major improvements to your short game - much easier than straightening out your driver or your irons.

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Visit Marbella, in the heart of this world famous golf valley. The city of Marbella is surrounded by more than 150 of the best golf courses in the world. The region has all the facilities, hotels and services that golfers have come to expect in a top notch golf destination.

The Costa del Sol in Spain has more golf courses than anywhere else in Spain. Some of these golf courses are among the most prestigious golf courses in the world.

Every year, thousands of golfers visit Marbella for golf holidays and golf excursions. Professional golfers also compete in international tournaments hosted by the surrounding golf courses.

Marbella is truly one of the most exciting golf destinations in the world. It also boasts tremendous scenery, fantastic beaches, several museums and historical sites.

This was the first time we'd all been golfing together in quite a few years. And it was definitely the first time we'd played with Peter's kids, Alex, Amanda, and Nicole. So it was a special day in more ways than one.

In fact it was the first time on a real course for Amanda and Nicole. They've both been taking lessons at the local "golf academy", so this was a chance to see how they would do.

We split up into three groups (we were playing the 9 hole par 3 course) and I was with Amanda and Scott.

The first thing I noticed about Amanda's swing is that she could actually hit the ball. Wow! That's quite an accomplishment. Of course she'd learned that big John Daly like swing that instructors like to encourage kids to use. But she was actually hitting the ball with it - something that always amazes me about kids and golf balls.

Of course it didn't take long before I felt I should show her the little partial pitch swing. "Just take it back about here, and hit the ball...'poop' like that..."

My choice of words maybe wasn't the best, but it stuck. The next time I said "you should probably use that little 'poop' swing here..." Amanda cracked "Ok, but do I have to say 'poop'...?"

Of course. It wouldn't be a 'poop' swing if you didn't.

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If pre-setting the bat is OK for baseball players why isn't it for golfers? I think it's because golfers think there is some magic in the path of the club going back - and so many golf teachers reinforce that (erroneous?) idea.

Obviously what matters is where the club ends up at the top of the swing and how you bring it down into the ball. As Jim Suttie explains, most swing problems actually originate in the way a golfer takes the club back. Since we seem to think it is one seamless motion from beginning to end, how we take it back is directly relevant to where we end up at the top and how we bring the club down to the ball.

The "no swing backswing" tries to get rid of the variables at the beginning of the swing and get you ready to swing from the common position that (almost) everybody agrees you should be in - the 9 o'clock position (to use Dave Pelz's terminology).

This "no swing" approach also shortens the total length of the backswing by encouraging you to hit from about a 10:30 position. "Just pump and hit" as Suttie tells his demo-guy Scott Sanderson.

The problem - and you can see it with Sanderson - is that until you're really used to doing this you're not quite sure how to get the swing going. You can see him hesitate as though he's trying to figure out how to start.

There was an article in Golf Digest by David Leadbetter about a year ago proposing a similar routine. But that seemed to get little response and seems to have been forgotten by Leadbetter.

You can see more articles and commentary about the "no backswing backswing" here.

I've mentioned in a couple of posts that a few weeks ago I started using a backyard net for working on my swing. Since the net is only about 8x8 you can't really use anything other than a low lofted club, otherwise you end up hitting balls onto the road and into neighbours' yards. Also, unless you're OK with chewing up your grass you can't really use a lot of irons.

So I'd been using it for 15 or 20 minutes a day to work on some "improvements" to my driver swing.

Well, the results showed up almost immediately. I pretty much lost my driver swing for two or three days. One round was particularly annoying. Fritz and I were visiting with a friend of his at a course I'd never played before. I didn't hit a fairway until the 9th hole. And it was very tentative for the rest of the round.

The same thing happened the next day. And it wasn't a coincidence. I already knew that hitting into a net can be misleading because you can't see the results of sidespin. Even if it feels and sounds good, that's no guarantee it isn't going to be hooking or fading or slicing when you're on the course.

Well sure enough after about 6 or 7 sessions of working on "improvements" I was hitting terrible weak fades.

After a short session on a real range I threw out the changes, stopped using the practice net, and things were more or less back to normal.

So what good is the practice net? I'm not sure.

OK, I'll admit it. There have been a couple of occasions in my golfing life when I've been frustrated enough to actually throw a club.

I know. You're not supposed to do it. While club throwing was a common occurrence 50, 30, 20 or maybe even 10 years ago, it is definitely not acceptable now - although I did hear some geezers talking about it on a recent visit to an old established private club. (Note: a "golf geezer" is anybody who either is, acts, or looks more than a couple years older than me.)

Anyway, to get back to the point. I was having a particularly bad few holes during a round a couple of weeks ago. And there I was, about 20 yards from the hole with my lob wedge in hand. Predictably I pitched it short ...or maybe it was long (I can't really remember)... and I ended up in the gnarly rough above the hole.

Since I was already looking at double bogey there was no way I was going to walk all the way over to the cart to get a different club. So I tried chipping with the LB.

One double-hit later I was steamed enough to let it fly.

Yes, that's right. I'm sorry to say I actually threw the thing. It was quite a calculated throw of course, well away from any of my fellow golfers. But en route it wrapped around a tree and snapped in half.

I can't say I was sorry it broke. I've never had much luck with the LB anyway, and am quite content to just open up my sand wedge when I need more loft. But I'm not proud about getting angry like that, and I've promised myself never to let it happen again.

As luck would have it, on the next hole - a medium length par 3 over water - I hit my tee shot into the pond. And then proceeded to chip it in from the drop area with my sand wedge.

That's right - a par. I don't think my broken lob wedge liked that one little bit.

The June issue of Golf Digest features a lengthy description of the so-called "Stack and Tilt" swing being promoted by golf coaches Andy Plummer and Mike Bennett.

In a classic overstatement, the author of the article, Peter Morrice, says "Their secret...contradicts almost everything being taught in the game today." But is it really that different?

The most significant difference (as far as I can tell) with the "Stack and Tilt" swing is that it advocates keeping your weight on your front foot in the backswing. In other words it does not encourage the "weight shift" that almost everybody talks about when taking the club back.

The result is what almost looks like a "reverse pivot" at the top with the head and spine tilted much more towards the target than in the typical modern swing (TMS).

The differences are subtle. For one thing with the STS (Stack and Tilt Swing) the back leg does not remain flexed as in the TMS. If you look at the photos featured in the article you can see that when the club is at the top of the swing (p.122), there is almost a straight line running thru the back leg along the torso neck and head. And this line is angled about 10 degrees towards the target.

In other words, the front sided of the body is "stacked" above the front foot, and the back side of the body is "tilted" towards the target.

For a comparison look at the photo of V.J. Singh's swing on page 43 of the same issue (Golf Digest.) At the top of his swing his weight is "stacked" (more or less) over his back leg, and his torso is (more or less) perpendicular to the ground.

While this may sound radical if you have been listening to the constant self-assured chatter from most of today's golf coaches, teachers, magazines and television channels, the fact is, there has always been an alternative school of thought that has questioned the simplistic "weight shift" idea. Look at these photos, for instance, of John Anselmo (one of Tiger's early teachers,) Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods. Hogan clearly does not "post up" over his back leg.

Or look closely at this video of the 1930s swing of Bobby Jones. He does not shift his weight to the back. Nor does he shift it to the front. He remains centered over the ball.

Still, there are some aspects to the STS that are of special interest to me, since I have experimented with all of them in the past.

The first is the idea of keeping your weight forward, on your front foot, and pressing into the front foot as you take the club back. To me this has always seemed like a good way to force a steeper approach to the ball and a way to eliminate topping the ball. It also results in a lower trajectory since you are effectively de-lofting the club face. Unfortunately I have found it puts more strain on the front knee, and in my case usually results in aggravating an old knee injury.

The second has to do with the position of the back elbow and the flatter swing advocated by Plummer and Bennett. I'm not sure why a flatter, rounder (less vertical) swing is part and parcel of the STS, but I suspect it has to do with the relative difficulty of getting the club going when you have your weight forward. So the idea is to maximize club head speed by taking advantage of the rotation of the torso.

And third there is the intriguing idea of the "pelvic thrust" which the STS guys claim is necessary for a couple of interesting mechanical reasons. The most important reason is that since one's weight and shoulder position are forward, the approach to the ball will be significantly steeper than normal. In order to "shallow out" the swing you have to whip your hips around and thrust your lead hip up and towards the target. This makes you feel like you are almost jumping up and striking the ball while on your toes. Have you seen those photos of Natalie Golbus or Sergio, or a younger Gary Player? That's what they're talking about.

Like I said, for most of us these will seem like very subtle differences. But if you actually try this swing you should find that it feels quite different. The biggest difference in your game will probably be fewer thin hits. But for me it tends to result in pushes, especially with the longer clubs. I also find it more physically taxing - requiring more body contortions - and I don't think that can be a good thing.