Joe,
I have a bad habit of swinging from the top. You can imagine all the ugly things that can happen. Speed is somewhat important at the bottom of the swing so I go at it from the top. What can I do to get rid of this swing habit??
Thanks
Jarry, J. A. Roessler

Hi Jarry,
Yes, speed is important, but only at the point of impact. At that point clubhead speed is the sum of arm speed and wrist speed. If you allow your wrists to break too soon, the only speed left at impact is arm speed and you have robbed your overall swing of the wrist contribution. You must delay your wrist action until the last possible instant before impact. To illustrate this, take a ping pong paddle and ball, and hit the ball with arm speed and no wrist action. Then do the same thing with no arm action and all wrist action. Then do it with both and you should get the idea. Watch the slow motion replays of the pros on TV and you will see this is exactly how they do it.
Joe

I have a question for Joe:
A couple of days ago, while playing the front nine, I pulled seven or eight shots and hit three or four of them fat. An unusually bad evening for a guy who has shot as low as a 37 on this nine. A couple of these mis-hits were a combination of a pull and a fat shot. Something has crept into my game, and I have a strong feeling that the pulls and the "fats" are rooted in the same cause. If pulls and fat shots have been addressed simultaneously before, I certainly have not seen or heard of it. I'm guessing a problem at address, but it's just that -- a guess. Your thoughts on this? Until a couple of years ago, we used to play golf here on an all-sand course, hitting all our shots (except putts) off a piece of Astroturf that we carried around with us.Thanks a lot.
Garth Jahraus
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Hello Garth,
A pull is caused by the path of the club going from outside the target line to inside at impact. Since this is an incorrect swing path, it could also cause inconsistency in ball striking, so in that sense they could be related to fat shots, but not necessarily. Fat shots can also occur when your club is correctly on the target line, but your head is not steady enough. It is OK if your head moves sideways a little bit, but not up and down. Jack Nicklaus had an instructor who held the back of his hair to keep his head steady while he swung, and since Jack had a pretty good career, I would go along with that advice. That should take care of fat shots. For your pulled shots, you are going to have to try to swing more inside out. You can get a better feel for this by doing the double clubber drill, which allows you to view your swing path more clearly, since the extra weight slows you swing down enough for you to view it. I hope this helps.
Joe

Joe,
I am a believer of Never Up Never In, so when I 3 putt it is usually because my first putt is too far past the hole. However I do not want to lose my aggressiveness or else I will never sink anything. How can I reduce 3 putts?
Marv

Hi Marv,
Most people who miss a putt show their disappointment by turning away and giving an Oscar performance of pain and woe with an overabundance of body language. It would be much better to pay attention to what the ball does after it goes by the hole. You should notice which way it breaks as it trickles to a stop, and then you will have a much better chance at making the comebacker putt.
Joe

Joe,
My buddies and I play golf just for fun and small bets. We do not have handicaps and we do not play in tournaments, but sometimes they call penalties on each other for reasons that seem silly. Whenever I ask for logical reasons why these must be penalties, the answer is always a rule is a rule – duh, yup yup yup. Nobody seems to know the reasons some of the sillier golf rules got made. Do you know?
Confused Victim

Dear Confused,
The game was originally played only by rich people who made bets while playing golf. Money and egos were both on the line, so if there were any chance of catching an opponent with the smallest of rule violations, these people would pounce on it without mercy. Common sense and sportsmanship had nothing to do with it. The point was, and apparently still is, all about money and pride, not common sense. Some say there is integrity involved with following these rules, but common sense says many of these rules were made by egotists with very little integrity and some of these rules had nothing to do with the skill of the game. For recreational players, I don’t think there is much integrity or sportsmanship in calling a penalty on someone who had no intention of gaining an unfair advantage with some miniscule violation that had no bearing on shot making. That is like playing the kids game Simon Says. This leads to the question, do you really have any integrity if you have no sportsmanship? I say no. Sportsmanship suggests to give a person a break if an incident had nothing to do with the skill of the contest, for example, a meaningless penalty for the wind moving the ball after you ground your putter, especially if you are only playing for fun. You might enjoy a website called sortagolf.com, where there is lots of information on similar topics, for example, there really is a difference between tournament golf and recreational golf, and if you are not a tournament player, you will enjoy the game less if you subject yourself to tournament rules, so sortagolf suggests what recreational rules should be.
Joe

Joe,
I consider myself to be a pretty good ball striker, I do not hit many fat or thin shots. But one day I will hit everything left and another day I will hit everything right, and sometimes both ways. My set of clubs has been custom fitted, so that cannot be the reason. My friends say I am not swinging any differently, and I am not overswinging. What can I try to fix this?
Harvey

Hello Harvey,
This is typical of a backswing that is too loose at the top and pays no attention to keeping the clubface square to the target line. Without you thinking about it, sometimes your clubface will be closed at impact and other times it will be open. Picture your clubface being square at setup. Using your chest as a reference point as you turn on your backswing, keep the clubface square to your chest. When you have completed your turn, your chest has turned away from the target line and so has the clubface. If you have ever seen Mike Weir swing, you will notice that before his swing he will take the club halfway back and look at it to make sure the clubface is in the correct position, and ingrain that feeling in his mind. Then while he still has that feeling, he quickly starts his backswing the same way. Give that a try and let us know how it turns out.
Joe

Joe,
I know we are supposed to keep a positive attitude all the time, but that is hard to do when you get a snowman on the first hole, which ruins the entire round, especially after you have just had a good practice session. That is very deflating and I do not know how to handle it. Help please.
Frosty

Hi Frosty,
With a name like that you deserve to get a snowman, just kidding. Having a bad first hole is something that will occasionally happen to everyone. The way to handle this is with a mental strategy. Tell yourself you would still rather be on the golf course that be at home doing chores. You still have 17 holes left to go, and you can only play this game one shot at a time, so just look forward, not backward. You cannot change what just happened, but your attitude can affect what happens next. Each shot is a new adventure, you can never be sure if the outcome will be good or bad. Your round is not yet ruined, sometimes your better scores will include one bad hole, so you have just gotten that bad hole out of the way sooner. Enjoy the rest of the round as much as you can. Or would you rather go home and do some chores? Fooey. Feel better now?
Joe

Joe,
Is it just a myth, or is it true that if you act confident when you putt, you will make more putts?
Ashley

Hello Ashley,
It is true, because those who feel confident are committed to the read and to the execution of the stroke. Those who are not confident of the read are not likely to commit themselves to make a confident stroke. Instead they make a tentative stroke and look up too soon. The lesson here is that even when you are not sure of the read, you must commit to your best guess and make a confident stroke. A tentative stroke has very little chance of success.
Joe

Joe, quit griping about the rules. People who do not follow all the rules must be lacking in integrity.

Answer to Mr. Integrity: If you have so much integrity, the next time you drive one mile per hour over the speed limit, go to the nearest police station and report your violation and insist on paying your fine, or else you are a hypocrite. Of course you think that would be silly because there was no harm in such a minor violation. Now do you get my point? If a minor violation has nothing to do with the skill of the game, it is an insult to sportsmanship to spoil anyone’s round by calling a penalty for any petty instance that had nothing to do with gaining an unfair advantage.
Joe

Joe,
Sometimes I hit shots too fat and sometimes too thin. Any suggestions on improving this?
Marty

Hello Marty,
There are a few things that can cause this. First is allowing your front elbow to bend too much. You do not have to keep it rigid, but comfortably straight to eliminate this unwanted variable. Next cause could be allowing your head to move too much during the swing, you need to keep it reasonably steady. Another possibility, your problem may be caused by a swing that tries to sweep the ball up off the ground. I would recommend hitting down at the ball, so that your club first strikes the ball at the equator and then takes a divot. Notice on TV how the pros take a divot on every fairway shot. By hitting down, the ball spins up the clubface, even when you strike it at the equator. If you do not hit down, and you strike it at the equator, the result is a grounder or low line drive. This means by hitting down you improve your margin for error. Even if you think you are risking hitting more thin shots (and you might not), this is better if you have eliminated fat shots, because fat shots usually do not travel as far as thin shots. Everyone hits occasional bad shots, but there is an old saying that improvement begins with better bad shots, so thin shots would be an improvement over fat shots.
Joe

Hi Joe,
I have a constant problem with ball position. Not the typical should the ball be in the back, middle or front of my stance, but how far should I be away from the ball. What happens, and sometimes I can go an entire round and not figure it out, is that I stand too close to the ball. When I get home and look in the mirror it can be come obvious. When I stand too close, I tend to "jam" my front arm swinging at the ball, and my back hand tends to get too active and scoop the ball. Also, with club too close, my front shoulder tends to tilt more than swing back and around. It seems like this should be obvious, but it is clearly not.Thanks. Larry

Hello Larry,
One of the reasons people stand too close to the ball is because they sole the club flat on the ground and then take their stance, assuming you are supposed to leave the club soled flat against the ground. This may sound logical, but the force of the swing causes the toe to dip down, and to prove this you can check your divots to see if they are deeper towards the toe end. Therefore when you set up, the toe should be higher than the heel, and that will move you a bit further away from the ball. At setup the distance between your hands and body should be at least 6 inches, maybe more depending on your body build. If you can keep this distance consistent, the problems you described should be lessened.
Joe

Joe,
You say to avoid the no mans land area where you must use a half swing for 20 yards out to 70 yards. I am OK with a full swing wedge, but the half swing I either hit it too low with my pitching wedge or skull it with my sand wedge. I actually get a fear attack as I take my backswing for these shots. Is there anything to cure these things?
Bradford

Hello Bradford,
This is the most delicate area of the game, so you can get the yips for pitching just as bad as yips for putting. As a matter of course management, many golfers try to stay away from these distances due to the same problem you described, but sometimes you will find yourself in those spots anyway, so you might as well try to learn a stroke that can execute these shots with some confidence. It sounds like you only carry 2 wedges, and the soles are different. Notice a sand wedge does not lay on the ground the same way as a pitching wedge because the back edge of the sole is lower than the leading edge while the pitching wedge sole is more flat. The term for this is bounce angle. If your sand wedge has a lot of bounce, this might explain why you are skulling shots if you do not change your ball position. Try playing the SW off the back foot to reduce the effect of the bounce angle. Do not be afraid to take a bigger divot. You might find this works well for shorter pitches but not for longer ones. If that is the case, get a lob wedge which does not have much bounce angle and then you can use your normal ball position for longer pitches with less fear of skulling it. You will also get the extra height that you will not get with a pitching wedge. As strange as it sounds, a pitching wedge is not always the best club to pitch with.
Joe

Joe,
Is your game as consistent as your sarcastic remarks?

Answer: Here is an example of my consistency. Last week I played a quick 9 at my local course Fox Run. The course was empty so I played alone and hit two balls off the tee, first with a hybrid and second with a 3 iron as a contest. On the first hole the hybrid went down the middle but the 3 iron went into a fairway bunker. Then, of course since nobody was watching, the first ball 8 iron went into the cup for an eagle. Although that is hard to believe, the rest of the story is much easier to believe. From the fairway trap, I topped the second ball about 20 yards forward, pushed a wedge into the greenside trap, blasted long and 3 putted for a triple bogey 7. That was a 5 shot swing, resulting in aggregate score of one over par for that hole, which is what I usually score on that hole anyway, thus restoring the fundamental equilibrium of the universe. That should answer your question about my consistency. For what it is worth, over the 9 holes the hybrid went just as far as a decent 3 iron shot, but was much more consistent and forgiving on off center hits. Is it spring yet?

Joe,
Please give me some advice on tendonitis in the right elbow. I am 63, and have played 160 rounds this year and have this pain in my right elbow, and it started in the last part of the year (that is in September). I have never had this condition before. I am interested in preventative measure for the 2007 season, and I have decided to rest my arm for several months before 2007. I have used the common wrap while playing, and have felt no pain while wearing the wrap. But I would like to cure the condition and start anew in 2007. In advance, thanks!
Roger Dodger from Minnesota

Hi Roger,
Wow, 160 rounds is a lot, I think my arm would fall off. Since I am not a doctor, I can only guess what to do. Are you sure this is tendonitis and not arthritis? There are plenty of items you can buy off the shelf at your local drug store for arthritis, just in case that might be the problem. If it really is tendonitis and the wrap seems to help, there is no rule that says you cannot keep wearing the wrap. However if the wrap restricts you, I can understand why you would like to play without it. I have heard other people having this problem if they swing with the flying elbow like Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples or John Daly. I do not know if you also do this or not, but it might be worth a try to swing with your elbows closer together like Vijay Singh or Tiger Woods.
Joe

Joe,
Sometimes I read about how a pro was struggling in a tournament and had to manufacture a swing in the middle of the round. What does that mean and how do they do that? I have always heard that it is a bad idea to try changes in the middle of a round and to save swing changes for the practice range, right?
Ryan

Hi Ryan,
That is a great question. When our muscles begin to tire, they behave differently, so the good swing we had on the practice range can disappear during a round, and we must do something different to avoid ruining that round. People who rely only on their natural ability usually find it harder to make adjustments because they do not know what to adjust. On the other hand, people who understand their swing mechanics already know there are several things going on during a swing, such as the relationship between hip turn and shoulder turn. If either one is turning more or less than usual, the overall swing can change. At the same time, tiring muscles can cause the arc of the swing to become too flat without you realizing it. Your tempo may also change slightly or you may be overswinging. So to manufacture a swing in the middle of a round, you have to analyze the results of your shots and decide which of these things has the best chance to correct the erroneous shots. Most good golfers have a list of keys, or swing thoughts to focus on. On some days, one key may work better than another key. I personally do not want to wait until the next time I get to the practice range, because that is giving up on the round. I simply try some practice swings using another key that I know has worked in the past and see how it feels. If I do not feel confident with it, I will pick a different key until I find a practice swing that give me a feeling of confidence. Your comment about saving things for the practice range is correct for new ways to swing that you have never tried before.
Joe

Joe,
if you are not sure if you hit a ball out of play, if it is a yellow stake you cannot take a provisional, you have to take a drop and play on, but if it is a white stake you are allowed a provisional or else you have to go back to the tee and play it over. Since the ball may be out of play in either case, why is there a difference? Why is it you cannot take a provisional for a yellow stake?

Answer: For the same reason in North Dakota, it is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on. It is dumb but true, you can look it up. This means if you are not sure that your shot cleared a pond with yellow stakes, you have to walk all the way around the pond to see if you can find your ball. If you cannot, you must walk all the way back and drop behind the pond, no provisional is allowed for yellow stakes, only white ones. This means if you are in North Dakota, you can possibly get arrested for falling asleep due to the slow play this dumb rule can cause, unless you remember to take your shoes off first.

Joe,
I read somewhere that the rule makers are thinking of reducing the number of clubs allowed in your bag from 14 to 10. What do you think of this idea?
Tanaka

Hello Tanaka,
I like the idea because it adds another level of skill required to adjust your swing with the same club rather than using the same cookie cutter swing for an entire set of clubs. However, I do not think the club manufacturers will allow this, they want to sell more clubs, even if all of them are not necessary. I would like to see the limit even lower than 10. Francis Ouimet used only 7 clubs to win the 1913 US Open, and Richard occasionally suggests during the off season you might do just as well playing with only 8 clubs. I put this to the test myself and found Richard and Francis were right, you can play just as well with half a set. Driver, putter, sand wedge, pitching wedge, 8 iron, 6 iron, and a hybrid 4. Whenever my distance to the green was in between clubs, it was not a problem to compensate by either swinging a little easier with more club, or adjusting the grip to a little weaker or stronger position and playing for a fade or draw. You can learn a lot about your swing this way. Walking is good exercise. No need for a pull cart, the bag was much easier to carry, in fact I was able to use a tiny Sunday bag, as light as a feather like a quiver for arrows. You might ask, what about the lob wedge? Well, for most people, unless you are really good with the LW, it can cost you more strokes than it can save you. Most people can pitch just as well or better with the SW. What about fairway woods? Based on what I have seen, most people can hit a hybrid 4 as well or better than any fairway wood or long iron. What about the missing irons? Not very many people hit all their irons equally well anyway because even in a matched set the shafts are all different lengths. If you carry only your favorite irons, and they happen to be either the even numbers or the odd numbers, you might have more confidence in each shot. Those of you who have the guts to try this might be in for a big surprise. For example, the next time you have a mediocre front 9 with all 14 clubs and your total score will not be important, use only the half set for the back 9 and put some excitement back into the round to see if you can beat your front 9 score with that half set. Have fun with this experiment.
Joe

Joe,
If you accidentally bend or dent a club, why is it a penalty if you use it anymore during a round?

Answer: For the same reason in Seattle, residents may not carry concealed weapons longer than six feet, it is just another dumb rule. The rulemakers must think damaged clubs are giving you an unfair advantage. If that were the case let’s all improve our games by bending and denting our clubs. Maybe stores will jump on the bandwagon too, and make some extra money by selling bent clubs at premium prices.

Question, why is it illegal to use a tee to flick a bug out of your putting line, supposedly because you might be testing the surface, but you can use a tool to repair a ball mark, which of course is a much better way to test the surface?

Answer: For the same reason it is illegal to set a mousetrap without a hunting license in California, a rule is a rule. It is true, you can look it up. And the purists who are incapable of rational thought had better follow this one too or else I would have to question their integrity.

(scroll down a page or two, for some reason there is a lot a blank space before the next question)

Joe,
Are there any rules that prohibit a man from using a golf ball designed for women? I like to use the Precept Lady because I can get them for $9.99 a dozen and I like the feel. I think they're very similar to Maxfli's Noodle, but I save about $5-6 per dozen. Some of the guys in my Wednesday night men's club have given me a hard time about using a ladies ball.......until I outdrive them.
Sincerely,
Darren Meyers
Silver Lake, KS

Hello Darren,
You are not the only one who discovered this. Several years ago golfers who wanted more distance would use high compression balls, but these balls lacked the feel as you mentioned. When oversized drivers came out, golfers discovered that they could hit lower compression balls just as far or farther than higher compression balls, but they also liked the feel of lower compression balls, so the Precept Lady began selling like hotcakes. Other companies recognized this and came out with their own versions of Lady balls. Precept also went one step further for those macho types who felt funny hitting a Lady ball, by introducing the Laddie for men, which also had low compression but not quite as low as the Lady. There is no rule that says you cannot use a Lady ball, you do not even have to wear a skirt.
Joe

Joe,
Question - I am a swayer (Not really a word), but I tend to sway on all shots, my back hip moving laterally. It's inherent from playing years of baseball, having taken up golf later in life. Don't know how to stop it, as when it gets bad, tend to reverse pivot as a result.Any ideas?
Larry

Hi Larry,
It is not easy to overcome motor muscle memory, it takes lots of drills to unlearn something. Start by posing at the top of your backswing and notice where your hips are. If the hips have swayed too far back, move them to the correct position while you are still posing and get a good mental feel for that position, just like a baseball player. Then try to repeat your backswing over and over again until you can arrive at your new position. Take a look at the way Kenny Perry swings. No hip motion at all until he gets to the top of the backswing and then all of a sudden he turns the hips and begins the downswing. Here is another thing you can try. While addressing the ball, tilt your spine toward your back leg while keeping your hips forward. This places most of your weight on the back leg, so there is no need to shift weight during the backswing, Just keep the hips forward and your head steady. On the downswing, make sure all your weight ends up on your front foot, and this should correct your reverse pivot.
Joe

Joe,
I am ready to buy new clubs and I am thinking about trying stiffer shafts. Is there such a thing as too stiff? What would happen if you get shafts that are too stiff for you? How would I know which is the right amount of flex is best for me?
Bud

Hi Bud,
Many golf shops have a monitor that measures your swing speed and launch angle to give you an indication of which flex is best for you. Unless you have a very high swing speed, with ordinary stiff shafts you might lose distance and hit the ball too low, but you might be a little more accurate. I used to think that stiffer shafts were always preferable because they theoretically would reduce an unwanted variable, that being the flex translating to variations in clubface positions, but today’s shaft technology has introduced the low-torque concept which helps keep the clubface square while the shaft is flexing but not twisting. This allows us to take advantage of the shaft's spring-effect without sacrificing accuracy. Depending on your swing speed, this spring effect should happen just before impact in order to get maximum clubhead speed and launch angle. It makes me wonder how in the world did the old time golfers ever shoot par with wooden shafts? It gives you a sense of how good those guys really were. No technology, no matched sets of clubs, just a stick with a hunk of wood or metal on the end, playing on scruffy fairways and greens with golf balls that were far inferior to what we have today. If those guys had the chance to play with today’s equipment, I think they would beat today’s pros. Maybe someday in heaven we will find out.
Joe

Joe,
I get so mad when I have a good round going and then all of a sudden I start hitting iron shots straight to the right. It does not feel like I hit it off the toe, it feels like a fairly solid hit. My confidence is ruined because on every subsequent swing I am afraid it might happen again, so I get very tentative. This does not make any sense to me, one shot straight ahead, next shot straight to the right. Is there anything I can do to help prevent this?
Samuel

Hello Samuel,
Take a look at ball marks on the clubface. I think you are striking the ball too close to the shaft hosel, and this is called a shank, and it will send the ball far to the right. I also have experienced the shanks, and I found a couple of ways to cure them. I my case, I was standing with too much weight on my toes. When I put a little more weight on my heels, the shanks disappeared. Another possible reason for those who have a rather flat swing plane is that the harder you swing, the more the clubhead extends further from your body due to centrifugal force, increasing the chance of striking the ball on the hosel. If you like swinging hard, try a more upright swing plane, and let me know the results. One more thing to consider, maybe your irons are not fitted properly to your body build, better visit your local pro shop and check this. If the shafts are too long, just have them shortened and regripped, it is not that expensive. Good luck!
Joe

Joe,
How about settling a friendly discussion. Bunkers and rakes. Are rakes to be left in or out of the bunkers?
Thanks, Dick Bruce

Hello Dick,
There is no rule one way or another. Each course may have its own preference, so ask at the pro shop. If you want to make it easier for the guys who mow the grass, put the rakes inside the bunkers but not on a sloping area. However, on the usga.org site there is a “decision” misc/2 that says it is better to leave the rakes outside the bunker just in case a ball rests against the rake, because if that happens and you move the rake, the ball might roll down the slope and you might not be able to replace it in the same spot, resulting in a stroke and distance penalty, which I think is really a stupid rule, because if the rake was not there the ball would have rolled down the slope anyway. You don’t want to get into debates with usga-holes, it is like trying to wrestle a pig. All you do is get muddy, and the pig likes it. After I make my first billion, I am going to buy the usga and change all their stupid rules.
Joe

Joe,
What is your opinion on why the Americans have not done very well in the last several Ryder Cup matches?
Javy

Hello Javy,
Some people think all the Americans have to do is show up to win. I think that is a dangerous attitude. Every so often I will mention one of the best golf books ever written, The Greatest Game Ever Played, by Mark Frost. In this book you will get a feel for the extra passion the Brits have whenever they play Americans. In my opinion, we need to give credit to the Europeans for playing better golf instead of saying the Americans played poorly. You can still play well and get beat anyway, especially by passionate opponents. I say hats off to the Euros instead of what is wrong with the Yanks.
Joe

Joe,
I think it would be really cool to play under the same conditions as the tournaments where the rough is grown tall and the greens are lightning fast. Why don’t more courses do that?
Chen

Hello Chen,
Pace of play is usually the reason. If the rough is too tall, it is sometimes hard to find the ball, and the constant searching will delay play. Overly fast greens are also going to slow play because everyone will be 3-putting. Also it is not healthy for the greens to always be cut too short. Conditions such as these are more suitable for tournament golf than recreational golf. If you ever hear about a course bragging about their high rough and double digit stimpmeter readings for their greens, you can count on a very slow round.
Joe

Question for the Evil Twin:
Jody, last week the topic came up about the advantage of using more expensive balls. Let us hear what you have to say about what difference it will make if I use a four dollar ball instead of a one dollar ball?
Answer: The difference is you will be three dollars poorer with little change to your game.

Joe,
Do expensive balls really help? What ball do you use and why?
Jim

Hi Jim,
I like the Pinnacle Exception because for me it seems to have the right mix of spin, feel, and distance, and it is more reasonably priced than the more highly advertised balls. Other good balls that are not expensive are the Wilson Pro Staff 360 Tour, Maxfli Noodle, and the Top Flite XL Extreme. I do not seem to score any better with more expensive balls. This does not mean these balls will be best for everyone. For those of you who hook or slice too much, you may do better to use a low spin or a distance ball.
Joe

Joe,
I find it confusing when I read instructions, some of which say to take a full shoulder turn but not much hip turn. I find this to feel most unnatural. If I turn the shoulders fully, my club goes past parallel, which I hear is not a good thing. This seems like too much to think about. What is so bad about turning the hips also, is there such a thing as too much hip turn?
Hank the Shank

Hello Hank,
Some instructions are intended for low handicappers who have better than average athleticism. Golfers with average athleticism might do better to keep things a little more simple. It sounds nice to say you should imitate the swing of the pro, but that is hard to do unless you have the same degree of athleticism as the pro, which is not likely. Average golfers should consider this, the farther you turn, the harder it might be to meet the ball on the sweet spot of the clubface. Therefore you have a better chance if you take a comfortable amount of shoulder turn, and allow your hips to turn naturally without restricting them (be careful not to sway). Only increase your turn if you can hit the sweet spot most every time. Also, going past parallel is not always a bad thing. John Daly, Phil Mickelson, and several others go past parallel, even the great Bobby Jones did that, so as long as you are making good contact, no need to change.
Joe

Joe,
How do you explain the unusual swings of Jim Furyk and Kenny Perry, who do not swing at all according to any instructions you will find anywhere? How are they able to get away with that?
Willie

Hello Wille,
Jim’s college golf coach said he would never make it on the tour unless he changed his swing, boy was he wrong. Kenny Perry’s swing has been described as home grown. In either case, nobody else even tries to swing like that. How do they get away with it? The answer lies in understanding the difference between mannerisms and fundamentals. Backswings are mannerisms, downswings are fundamentals. Jim and Kenny do not look much different than any other pro on the downswing, therefore their fundamentals are correct. Their backswings, although unusual, succeed in getting them into proper position at the top, which indicates it does not matter how you get there, so the different ways that they get to the top are only mannerisms. On the takeaway Jim sets his wrists early, bringing the club inside, but then raises his arms up to get on plane, which looks very loopy. Kenny raises his arms with no body movement, and just before he gets to the top, he turns his hips and shoulders to get on plane. Both guys at that point are in a powerful position, and that is the most important idea here. Again, the only purpose of the backswing is to get you to your most powerful position at the top.
Joe

Joe,
What is recommended, a thinner grip or a thicker grip?
Ramon

Hello Ramon,
It depends whether or not you want more or less hand action. A thinner grip allows more hand action, a thicker grip reduces hand action. Since everyone has different sized hands, here is a way to tell how thick your grip should be. When you grip the club, the tips of your fingers should be just barely touching the heel of your palm. If your grips are too thin, your fingers will pressing too much into your palm, and this might cause the club to rattle around in your hand. I personally prefer my grips to be on the thicker side because it gives me a feeling of better control.
Joe

Joe,
Now that I am shooting in the 80s I believe I can par any hole, in fact I get mad at myself whenever I bogey. Of course when you shoot in the 80s you must be getting more bogeys than pars, so I am mad at myself most of the time, and as a result my overall enjoyment is less than it should be. Even when I am playing better than normal, I always seem to have 1 or 2 blowup holes to keep me out of the 70s. Since I am getting older I am not sure I will ever get any better, so is there a mental strategy I can use to enjoy the game more?
Everett

Hello Everett,
You are not alone. Everyone thinks they can shoot better scores than they really do. We take pars for granted when we should appreciate that fact that a par is a successful score to feel good about, especially if we are not zero handicappers. Join some competitions where you have a chance to beat an opponent. Even if you have a mediocre score, it still might be better than your opponent’s score. If your score always suffers from one or two blowup holes, try some match play competitions where no matter how bad one hole gets you only lose one hole, not the entire round. If you are playing alone, you can still have your own match play competition like this – if you get a par you win the hole, if you get a bogey you lose the hole. For other people who shoot in the 90s or higher, you can change this to say if you bogey you win the hole, and if you double bogey you lose the hole. Whatever you do, make it fun. The fun is in the challenges, so even when you are not scoring well, create some new challenges for yourself and go after them.
Joe

Joe,
With all the modern technology, why is it that the average golf scores have not improved over the years?
Raul

Hello Raul,
I have seen people spend a lot of money on swing analysis and launch monitors to get custom fitted clubs with the proper shaft with the proper kick point and matched with the right type of multilayer ball, and they still cannot beat the guy who got his clubs at a garage sale and who uses whatever ball is found in the pond. All the technology in the world is not going to lower scores without a good short game. You can hit a par 5 in two shots and if you three putt, you cannot beat the guy who takes 4 shots to reach the green and only needs one putt. Over the years, golf courses have gotten more difficult, especially those that brag about their stimpmeter readings like it is a prestigious macho thing to have the fastest greens. However, I think that detracts from your enjoyment of the game when you hit a good shot that ends up above the hole, but you have no chance to 2-putt because there is no way to stop a downhill putt near the hole when the stimpmeter has the same reading as the hood of your car. The answer to that is to stay below the hole, but then if you stay too far below the hole you again are risking a 4-putt if your first putt goes past the hole, and if the pin is near the front of the green, you are likely to miss the green altogether, which still might be preferable to have an uphill chip instead of a downhill putt if the slope is severe. Stimpmeter readings should stay in the single digits, otherwise scores are not ever likely to improve.
Joe

Joe,
I have been told to chart my shots, but that seems like too much work. I need a simpler way to check my progress. Which things make the most sense to chart and which are those that do not matter so much and therefore are not worth charting?
Statman

Hello Statman,
I cannot believe that is really your name, but anyway it fits your question, I bet you are an accountant, right? My method is different because I only want to identify areas that I need to work on the most. I use 7 categories. When I count fairways hit, I also include a good drive that ends up in light rough with a good lie and a clear shot at the green (purists count that as a missed fairway). On the other hand, I do not count a poor drive that happens to end up in the fairway with no chance of hitting the green (purists count it as a fairway hit). For hitting greens in regulation, I include good shots that happen to end up on the fringe to allow a reasonable putt (purists count it as a missed green). On the other hand, I do not count a mediocre shot that ends up on the wrong end of a kidney shaped green where there is no chance to 2-putt (purists count it as a green hit). For counting putts, I include putts from the fringe (purists do not). After all, it is still a normal putt, not like a British Open roller from 20 yards out. In counting up and downs, I do not include the Texas Wedge, or putts from the fringe (purists do) because to me it is not a chip shot. In counting penalties, I include chipping out from behind trees, or other recovery shots where hitting the green is not possible (purists do not), because that amounts to the same thing really, and it makes me think about course management. I count mechanical errors that cost a stroke. Sometimes it does not cost a stroke, like a thinned shot traveling almost as far as a decent shot. I count mental errors if they cost me a stroke, like picking the wrong club and then realizing too late that I did not account for wind or elevation change or the type of lie. Keeping track of these things gives me a better idea of where to spend my practice time.
Joe

Joe,
My question has to do with the triangle and all swings. Due to limited shoulder/upper body flexibility, my back hand tends to separate (pull away) from the grip on the back swing. This pulling away, reduces the connection of the triangle, as I tend to only feel like I'm swinging with my front arm/ shoulder. It feels like I lose the connection of the back shoulder when I swing down. It's like trying to hit a baseball one handed, much harder. When I swing my arms, with no club, I can really feel the connection of shoulders/arms moving as one. Any ideas, I figure I can't be the only one with this problem.Thanks.
Larry

Hi Larry,
Here are some things to try. First the grip. There are 3 commonly acceptable ways to grip the club. Interlock, Overlap, and Ten Finger. Whichever one you are using, try the other two and use the grip that gives you the best results. If you find no improvement there, perhaps you are trying too hard to maintain the triangle since you said you already have limited flexibility. The triangle works best for those who have a lot of flexibility, so just use the triangle for the first part of your backswing takeaway, then get to the top of your backswing like Vijay Singh with your elbows not too far apart, which means the back elbow must fold down. In other words, if you try to maintain the triangle too long, you may end up with a flying elbow, which could result in your back hand separating. I hope this helps, good luck to you.
Joe

Joe,
Is it true that a hook rolls more than a slice because a hook has overspin?
Spud

Hello Spud,
Anyone who has ever played ping pong knows if you put overspin on the ball it will dive down quickly, and in golf that is known as a duck hook, so overspin is not the answer. The ball must have a little bit of underspin in order to stay in the air longer, and you can also prove that with a ping pong ball. There are two reasons why a hook rolls more than a slice. First reason is a hook has less underspin, and the other reason is that the clubface must strike the ball in a more closed position for a hook, which means less loft and lower shot trajectory than the slice, which has a more lofted open clubface position. As a result, the lower hook is likely to roll more than the higher slice.
Joe

Joe,
I enjoy your newsletter and was wondering if you can help. For some reason I keep topping the ball with the fairway metals on the fairway, never when I am hitting them off the tee or with the irons or driver and the annoying thing is that it only happens on the course. I can always hit the ball properly on the driving range and even draw and fade at will. The miss hits are costing me a lot of shots in our competitions.
Look forward to reading the solution in your newsletter.
Best regards Tom Boyd

Hello Tom,
There are a number of possibilities for this, without watching you swing I can only offer a few suggestions. Perhaps your fairway metals are not well matched to the rest of your set. Perhaps at the driving range you are hitting off synthetic mats, which are more forgiving than grass. If neither of these are the case, then other possibilities are the lack of tension on the range allowing you to make more relaxed swings while on the course tension causes a slight change. Some instructors say to swing fairway woods differently than irons, in other words sweep the ball without taking a divot, but I say if this is causing you to top the ball, then by all means swing the same way you do with the irons and hit down at the ball and make sure you complete the follow thru with all your weight on your front foot, or else you might be doing a reverse pivot with some of your weight on the back foot, which can also cause topping. I hope this helps.

Joe,
Sometimes I read about good golfers being able to will the ball into the hole with positive thinking. I have tried this with no good results. I do not believe that can work, after all we are not magicians. Is this a bunch of baloney or not? How can the average golfer make this work?
Marvin

Hello Marvin,
Positive thinking cannot guarantee anything, but it will give everything a better chance for success than negative thinking will. This is why the better players visualize a successful shot beforehand, because that thought process leads to proper execution. You cannot execute properly if you are not sure the shot is going to work. This is most evident with putting. Those who commit to the read will usually make a better and more confident stroke than those who are not sure of the read and make a tentative stroke. The average golfer, or any other golfer, can make this work simply by convincing oneself to avoid making tentative strokes by focusing on proper execution and follow thru.
Joe

Joe,
Why is it that whenever I feel confident that I will have a good round, I am usually disappointed, and the opposite is true, when I am not so confident, sometimes I have a great round? I thought it was a good thing to have confidence, how should we handle this?
Fordham

Hello Fordham,
When we are overly confident, our human tendency is to lose a bit of focus because we just assume we are going to hit good shots without properly concentrating. The next time you feel this confidence, tell yourself that you are determined to execute your main swing thoughts. Take nothing for granted. You can only play the game one shot at a time, and any one of those shots can mess up your round if you lose concentration to execute each shot fully and properly. Once you understand this, you will have fewer disappointments.
Joe

Joe,
I used to be a pretty good putter, and I never really believed what I read about how the yips affect senior golfers until I got them myself, and my putting got worse and worse. I have tried everything, fancy putters, belly putters, chest putters, claw grips, cross handed grips, you name it and I have tried it. I got books from Pelz, Utley, Crenshaw, Watson, and other putting gurus, but I still have the yips. I am right handed and I even tried putting left handed, nothing seems to work. I am out of ideas. I need a new and different idea, is there anything else I can try?
Bernie

Hi Bernie,
You came to the right place because I have been there too. When ordinary methods do not work, you might as well try something else. Here is what I did, and it is still working. Of course there is no guarantee that this will work for you, but at least it is another thing you can try. You won’t hear this anywhere else because this is my own discovery. Take a regular length putter and grip it with your left hand really low on the shaft below the grip. Use your wrist to press the handle against your forearm and keep it there. Now add your right hand below the left with an ordinary ten finger grip. Keep your head completely still, make sure the handle is still pressing against your forearm, and use your shoulders to make the stroke. I use an open stance and center ball position for this, but you can experiment with whatever stance and ball position that works best for you. Of course you will have to bend over quite a bit, so find a comfortable stance, but if this hurts your back, get a longer putter and you will not have to bend over so far. If this works for you, consider getting your putter regripped with a much longer grip so your hands do not have to grip the skinny shaft. Let me know how this turns out.
Joe

Joe,
I am not a golfer but my husband reads this newsletter, and now he makes me read it too. Up to now it seemed stupid to me, the complicated rule book makes no sense, all you are doing is hitting a ball into a hole. Is it OK to ignore the rule book and just have fun and go play? Otherwise give me some reasons why I should bother to try it?
Jane

Hello Jane,
If you are a beginner, don’t worry about the rule book so much until you decide to take the game more seriously. Golf can be simple but purists make it overly complicated. If you want reasons to try it, here are some facets of golf to consider. Ages and genders do not matter, all can play together. Children can learn to play it well, while adults can never master it. Every round brings unexpected thrills while seemingly good shots can end up in disaster. It can be treated like a science, or a puzzle. Answers to problems are only temporary, good swing corrections only last for awhile, and then they no longer work for no apparent reason, so one must learn how to make adjustments. It requires concentration, but is played better when feeling relaxed. It allows you get into the great outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature. It satisfies the thirst for adventure, but frustrates the mind. It can be rewarding and it can be maddening. You can experience the thrill of a good shot and the agony of a shot gone awry. For every attempt you never know for sure which one you will get, until the ball stops rolling. It gives you a great opportunity to meet new friends and to recap the round afterward, recounting good shots and bemoaning bad breaks and injustices, encouraging each other and ourselves. Just as in life, you can use each experience as a chance to grow, improve, and reach your full potential. Because of these things, golf is the greatest game ever invented. That is why you should bother to try it.
Joe

Joe,
i'm 67 years on this earth, (can't say old or young) started golf three years ago, have a fairly good athletic body, plays golf twice weekly, left handed , from 9iron to 3 iron between 85 &150 yds. with a slight draw 3&5 wood between 160 & 180 on good shots. my driver a vicious slice about 200 yds out of bounds, normaly use a strong grip, would i be better off to weaken my grip. also my clubs are a cheap grade would better clubs improve my game can't seem to break 100.
frank.

Hello Frank,
If you draw all your other clubs but slice the driver, get a different driver, it does not match the rest of your set, and yes, better clubs might help, but don’t discard your old clubs too soon, you might find a little draw is a good thing, and there is no guarantee that newer clubs will perform any better until you try them. I would not recommend changing your grip if you can draw the ball with your natural stroke. There must be another reason why you cannot break 100 besides your driver, I suspect you need to work harder at chipping and putting. Good luck to you.
Joe

Joe,
I am a 71 year old male in good physical shape. I am using Taylor 465 driver with 9.5 degrees. For a month now I haven't been able to launch the ball. They just seem to be low drives. Would I be helped with a new Taylor R545XD with 10.5 degrees?
ThanksJay

Hi Jay,
I had the same problem as you. Trying to adjust my swing to get more height did not work. I finally tried drivers with 15 degrees loft and for me they work great. I have a Ping G2 that has a draw bias and a Golfsmith Snake Eyes High Launch model that I can hit straight or fade with a little weaker grip. There is a theory that a shaft with a low kick point will make a big difference in launch angle, but for me it also introduces wildness, but maybe that’s just me. If you really like Taylor Made, try the shaft with the low kick point.
Joe

Joe,
I've got a problem I can't seem to shake. I keep hitting into my left side (in baseball we call it stepping in the bucket!). What drills can I do to solve this situation. When I do this the ball is either pulled left, or I cut across the ball and slice it. I'd appreciate any help I could get.
Tom VanoverSpringdale, Ohio

Hi Tom,
In baseball when you step in the bucket, your front foot actually comes off the ground and comes back down away from the target line. If you are doing the same thing you probably are shifting too much weight to the back foot on the backswing. I would recommend the toe drag drill as shown in the Body Golf videos. If your front foot is not really leaving the ground, your pull is probably caused by your downswing path. This happens to many people who try to swing down the target line while their body is still turning, and by the time the club arrives at the ball, the turning has caused the path to change, and that leads to a pull. Try to change your downswing path. If you consider your target line to be 12 o’clock, if you are right handed, extend your follow thru to 1 o’clock. If you are left handed, extend to 11 o’clock.
Joe

Joe,
i have handicap 14. these days i suffer from putting. Most the time, when i take the club back it goes to inside and result miss the hole and cost me one shot extra. i have tried many way but without success. My main problem is one metter away from the hole. Kindly let me know if you have any tips for me in this regard.
rgds
bahman

Hello Bahman,
Since I have never seen the way you putt, I can only guess that your backstroke is too long. For a one meter putt, keep the backstroke as short as possible and keep the clubface square to the target all during your follow thru. If you can do that, you should make more putts.
Joe

Joe,
I don't know if it's due to improper use of arm, my shoulder inflexibility, but one point caught my intention. Someone watching my pitching/chipping noticed that my front arm wrist breaks way too early, about 1/2 the way to hip high. When that happens, bad things occur as my wrists/hands flip on the way down and I ground the ball. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Larry

Hi Larry,
Some instructions say to break the wrists early and some disagree. I feel it is an individual preference, whatever leads to better ball striking. In your case whatever you do, you cannot allow your wrists to flip on the way down, keep your hands ahead of the club all the way thru contact. As a drill, take the club back and stop, set your wrists to the desired angle, and keep them locked in that position as you execute your downswing.
Joe

Joe,
There is a theory that an object flies farthest when it starts with a 45 degree launch angle. That seems ridiculous to me because in golf that would be like a popup. What do you think?
Louie

Hi Louie,
This theory assumes the object has no underspin and the force path of the propellant is also at 45 degrees. In golf the ground obviously prevents such an angle for the path of the club, so there must be some loft on the clubface in order to keep the ball airborne longer. The more loft, the more you have underspin. If the ball were to be launched anywhere near 45 degrees with underspin, it would balloon up to an even higher angle, and the result would be like a 9 iron shot. So the ideal launch angle would have minimum underspin but still be as high as possible to stay airborne as long as possible. With the ground being in the way, it is not easy to hit the ball while the club is in the upswing, but if you play the ball further forward in your stance, you can at least reduce underspin.
Joe

Joe,
I am fighting a hook, and I am told that my grip is OK (Vs pointing at the chin), but I am rolling my forearms too much, but that is my natural move, and whenever I try a move that feels unnatural, I have poor contact. Other than just playing for my hook, is there anything else I can try?
Herbert

Hello Herbert,
During the setup, look at your leading arm. If your leading elbow is pointing at the target, this could cause your arms to roll on the downswing. If you have ever seen a photo of Ben Hogan’s setup, both his elbows are pointing in toward his body. This helped Ben fight his hook because the forearms are less likely to roll as much from that position. I hope this helps you.
Joe

Joe,
With today’s better balls and better clubs, the experts say a lot of courses will become obsolete because they have no more room to expand. But everyone I talk to says they are not scoring any better than they ever did. How can this be if everyone is hitting the ball longer than before?
Tabby

Hi Tabby,
Many courses in my area cannot expand, so they have undergone renovations to make them more attractive and more difficult, some call it tricking up the course by adding more bunkers and water hazards and letting the rough grow taller. But the main thing I have noticed is faster and more sloping greens with thicker grass around and up against the edges, so if you miss the green, there are no easy chip shots. You can forget about chipping with any other iron but a wedge. Even if you hit the green, if these greens get firm, your approach shots will bounce on and over into the thick grass. So even when these courses are not longer, they are certainly not as easy to score on.
Joe

Joe,
If a wider swing arc leads to more distance, it would seem to make sense to use clubs with longer shafts than standard length. I have tried such clubs without much success. What is the reason for this?
Ray

Hello Ray,
It is true that clubhead speed increases with wider swing arc, but there is something more important going on here. The longer the shaft, the more difficult it is to strike the ball in the middle of the clubface, which we call the sweet spot. I have seen cases where a golfer improved simply by getting shorter shafts than normal and being able to strike the sweet spot more often. Longer shafts may give you occasional longer shots, but your average distance is not that great if you have more mis-hits. Unless you can strike the ball on the sweet spot every time, longer shafts may not be such a great idea.
Joe

Joe,
Here's a question that I've never seen asked or answered: What is a drill or a technique to help hit the ball on the sweet spot more consistently? Everyone talks about hitting the ball on the sweet spot but what is a good drill to get you into hitting that sweet spot.
Thanks,
Bill Lapitsky

Hi Bill,
I like to start with the double clubber drill as shown in the Body Golf videos. Then I use a single club and a practice mat that has a permanent rubber tee and repeat this back and forth motion, trying to clip the tee on both the forward stroke and the backward stroke continuously. This helps to train your muscles into the same groove for each stroke. If you can do this every day, it should help your consistency.
Joe

Joe,
I have been trying several different brands of balls, but I do not notice much difference between them. I shoot in the 80s and I think I could shoot in the 70s if I can just hit more greens. I can hit pretty straight but I always seem to be long or short even tho I think I am using the right club for the distance, wind or no wind. What kind of ball might help me?
Tyrone

Hello Tyrone,
It is possible that you are going long or short because you are using different types of balls, each of which may be giving you different distances for the same kind of shot. This is less likely to happen if you just picked one type of ball and stayed with it all the time. Since you are hitting straight, you might also benefit from a high spin ball instead of a distance ball. The opposite would be true for people who do not hit straight.
Joe

Joe,
Are used golf balls any worse than new ones? Is there any way to tell when it is time to stop using a ball?
Ned

Hi Ned,
Sometimes used balls are worse, especially if they have been hit too many times. Do not use any balls having scuff marks, even small ones, because those can affect the way the ball flies. If the ball has no marks, you can do this rebound test to compare one new ball to one used ball. Find a smooth cement surface and hold the two balls together in the same hand, as high as possible over your head. Drop the balls together and see if they both rebound to the same height. If they do, they are both OK to use.
Joe

Joe,
I'm left handed. Don't hold that against me. I can hit the ball realistically 300 yards every drive. My problem: it is a crab shoot as to where it will go 200 yards straight 100 due east, 250 yards straight 50 yards due west. It looks good on the driving range but it kills me on the course and tight courses forget it. My 180 yard 7 iron goes pretty straight most of the time, but ego won't let me play golf with that off the tee and hitting 4th on the second shot. Please advise.
Rich

Hi Rich,
Since I have never seen your swing, there are a lot of possibilities here. If you hit a 7-iron off the tee and you still have the longest drives in your group, that should squash the egos of the others in your group, and in return that should help your own ego. I guess that means you also have this problem with fairway woods and lower numbered irons, or else you would be using them instead of a 7 iron, right? Have you always had this problem or only recently? Have you tried to shorten your swing? Have you tried a different set of clubs? It could be that your clubs are not matched to your swing. On the other hand, if you are able to hit most of your clubs straight, then try a different driver, because there is a good chance your current driver is not matched to your other clubs. There are so many different types available that will give you different results with the same swing. Even the same brand with a different shaft will make a difference. Try to attend some demo days where you can try out different types for free.
Joe

Joe,
Any tips for those of us who lose concentration when we get nervous?
Laurie

Hello Laurie,
Everyone gets butterflies in the stomach, so the trick is to make those butterflies fly in formation. In other words, accept the fact that you are nervous, don’t fight that feeling because it is not going to go away. Tell yourself that the more nervous you feel, the more you are going to focus on execution. You can only control what happens before the ball is struck. After that you are only an observer, so just make sure you finish your stroke completely before you look up. Most people who give in to nervousness cannot wait to see where the ball goes, so they look up too soon and never finish the stroke properly, whether it is a putt, a chip, or a full shot. Part of a game plan is to know ahead of time what you will focus on, whenever you get a case of the heebie-jeebies. Then when that happens, you are already prepared. The swing thought is to execute fully, and don’t cut it short.
Joe

Joe,
I thought it was a good thing to keep your head down, but now I am hearing it is not a good thing. Which is it?
Ken

Hi Ken,
Some people are so intent on keeping the head down that they hunch their head down between the shoulders like a frightened turtle. This will definitely interfere with your turn, so I prefer to say keep your head steady and stare at the ball spot even after the ball has been hit. Furthermore, push your shoulders down at address so you will be able to turn more freely. This will also widen your swing arc which will increase your clubhead speed. I hope this clarifies things.
Joe

Joe,
I am a beginner and I know that the lower numbered clubs are supposed to hit the ball farther, but I hit my 5 iron farther than my 3 and 4 iron, and I hit my fairway woods farther than my driver. Am I a freak of nature? What is going on here?
Lonnie

Hi Lonnie,
This is not a freak of nature. It is not always true that lower ball flight means longer shots. It is entirely possible to hit the ball too low if the ball does not stay in the air long enough, especially in wet conditions. In the old days conditions were a lot dryer and firmer, so the ball would roll forever, so low shots were preferred, but nowadays conditions are generally softer, so you get less roll, so the ball must stay airborne longer. My advice is to replace your long irons with hybrids and replace your driver with one that has 15 degrees loft.
Joe

Joe,
I understand the knees are supposed to be flexed before the swing, but when I do that I feel my turn is restricted. Is it OK not to flex the knees?
Kenny

Hello Kenny,
There is a term called an athletic stance, which is used in several sports like baseball, basketball, football, and more. The idea of this stance is to be in good firm balance and in a position that is ready for action. For golf, the knees should be flexed, but less so than other sports, because as you pointed out, it is possible to flex them too much which will restrict your turn. I do not think you will have much success with zero knee flex, just allow them to flex a little bit, and your turn should not be restricted by them.
Joe

Joe,
It is really cool when the pros can make the ball back up when hitting the green on an approach shot. What swing changes do I have to make in order to do that?
Becky

Hi Becky,
Be careful about making swing changes if you are already striking the ball consistently. It is never as important to get shots to spin back as it is to get clean contact on every shot. Even pros cannot make backspin work when the greens get "firm", and they get to play on the best greens while the rest of us have to play on public courses that have greens that are about as firm as a parking lot. So unless you are a single digit handicapper, forget the spin and just keep striking the ball better and avoid tips that cause fat or thin shots. If you are a single digit handicap, and you do want to get more spin, clean your iron grooves before every shot with a small wire brush, play the ball a little further back in your stance and hit down at it.
Joe

Joe,
I have been trying the X-factor theory to get more distance by turning the shoulders more and the hips less, and it works most of the time, but sometimes I block the shot out to the right. I do not feel like I do anything wrong, but it just happens too often and I don’t know why. Help!
Jonathan

Hello Jonathan,The X-factor requires perfect timing on the downswing between your lower body going forward and your shoulders trying to catch up. If your hips are too quick and your shoulders cannot catch up in time, a blocked shot is a likely result. Instead of the X-factor, you might want to try a one piece backswing which means the shoulders and hips work together so there is no timing difference. The golfer whose timing is best is Annika Sorenstam who seems to just flow into the ball, watch how her shoulders and hips work together without the X-factor.
Joe

Joe,
For the backswing, is it better to set the wrists early or at the top?
Ed

Hello Ed,
Although some people have success setting the wrists early, most people get inconsistent results with this because the wrists set a little earlier one time, and a little later the next time. Those who use the one piece backswing tend to have more consistent results because the wrists do not set until the top of the backswing. The important thing is to reach your best hitting position at the top of the backswing. If you can feel that strong position, then try both methods and use whichever method that gets you there.
Joe

Joe,
I would like to putt with my shoulders as you suggested . . .Sometimes this works great . . .But often times, I move my whole body with the shoulders with terrible results . . . .Is there something I can think of to use only the shoulders?
Ed

Hello Ed,
There is no single putting method guaranteed to work for everyone. Using the shoulders is only a common recommendation on the best chance for success for those who have not been able to find any other method that works for them. In your case, I can only guess that you tried the shoulders because you were not satisfied with your other methods, whatever they were. It may be time for you to try a belly putter, which forces your arms, shoulders, hands, and body to work together. Many golf stores have a putting area where you can try one. You can even make your own by cutting a hole in the top of the grip and inserting a broken shaft to any desired length, even a wooden dowel will work. Good luck to you.
Joe

Joe,
I cannot seem to get any consistency to hit longer chip shots and pitches, many times I will hit the ball thin or fat. I have tried to follow all the conventional ways to do these shots but I just cannot do it. What else can I try?
James

Hello James,
Most of the time this is caused by failing to keep your hands ahead of the club. If you allow your wrists to flip too soon, the likely result is a thin or fat shot. If the conventional methods do not work for you, you might as well try something unconventional to keep the wrists from breaking. For example, you may have heard of the term called a flying elbow. Usually this term is not recommended, but on putts and chip shots if this helps to keep your wrist locked, then it might be worth a try. Move your back elbow outward so that your forearm is more along the target line and feel how this bends your wrist. Now if you can keep the wrist in this position while you execute the stroke, your ball striking may improve. Again, this is a bit unconventional, but it might be worth a try.
Joe

Joe,
Firstly thank you for all the great tips. Hopefully you receive this email and respond. It would be highly appreciative of you. I've being playing golf for almost a year now and I'm hooked. I would like some advice on a good practice routine at the driving range.
Regards
Christopher

Hello Christopher,
First of all warm up with some stretching and some double clubber drills. To avoid wasting any balls, swing at a tee first. Always have a target. Start with wedge shots. Whenever you hit two good shots with one club, move up to the 9-iron, then 8, then 7, etc. until you have used all your clubs. Then try a few half wedges and when all this is done, pretend you are playing a hole by starting with a driver, then a short iron, then a half wedge. Then play another pretend hole by starting with driver or fairway wood, and a different iron. Do not hit too many shots with the same club. By alternating clubs you will avoid the problem of getting into a groove with one club and being unable to hit any other club. Good luck to you.
Joe

Question:
Tiger was recently criticized for saying he putted like a spazz. Do you think there was anything wrong with that?

Answer: What goes around comes around. Tiger was only trying to be funny, just like when Fuzzy Zoeller tried to joke about Tiger winning his first Masters, saying the food will be something like greens and watermelon. There was no intention of offending anyone, it was only a joke. The sad thing is that Fuzzy really took a beating for saying that, and I don’t remember Tiger coming to his aid, and as a result Fuzzy, one of golf’s most charitable ambassadors, was brought to tears. Just one example of how the press will do anything to get a story by creating unnecessary controversy.

Joe,
My swing on the range is fine, but on the course I cannot seem to repeat the good shots I left on the range. This is driving me nuts. What is going on here?
Ronnie

Hello Ronnie,
On the range there is no pressure, no penalty for a bad shot, so your mind is more relaxed. Also you are swinging every few seconds so it is easy to get into a good rhythm. On the course you only swing once every several minutes, and the mind knows there are potential penalties out there on every shot. The mind is a powerful thing. It can change the way you swing without you being aware. Sometimes in the middle of your stroke you could feel a little fear, and when that happens the stroke is usually ruined. You have to train yourself to execute a stroke with certainty, without any fear. If you can commit yourself to that and a bad shot still results, then you can be pretty sure your error was mechanical and you can take steps to correct it. You can already have good mechanics but a sudden fear thought can spoil a swing. If you don’t understand that you might be trying to correct mechanics that had nothing wrong in the first place. These are mental errors that you must be strong to overcome.
Joe

Joe,
I hear sometimes the pros get put on a clock for slow play. How is that fair to a fast player who must play with a slow player?
Kelly

Hi Kelly,
In my opinion, it is not fair to the faster player. That player is trying to hurry up while the slower player does not care, but both get the penalty for slow play. I think the time has come to use a shot clock for individual golfers, just like basketball, if you don’t get the shot off within a specified number of seconds, a penalty is assessed to you alone, not your playing partner. Another idea might be that when it is your turn, you can only line up a putt from behind your ball, walking elsewhere on the green should be disallowed. You would be able to do that either while first walking up to the green or while it is someone else's turn.
Joe

Joe,
If I want to make sure my hands are in the correct position at the top of the backswing, is there an easy way to feel this without having to stop and look?
Theo

Hello Theo,
One way to do this is to think about where your thumbs are. Usually you do not have to look to feel their position. At the top of your backswing if your thumbs feel like they are under the grip or on the swing plane, you are probably in a good position. You might want to stop at the top of your backswing and see where you natural position is, especially when you feel good about your swing. That way, the next time you get into a slump, you can do the same check to see if this position has changed.
Joe

Joe,
I am a pretty good putter on the practice green, but on the course I seem to lose my touch. I am aware that nerves can have something to do with this, so I try to put some pressure on myself on the practice green, but the results are the same. Can you suggest something?
Al

Hello Al,
I have seen this happen with people who like to use some wrist action for their putting stroke. On the practice green, even when you try to apply some false pressure, the wristy stroke can work OK, but on the course where the pressure is real, the wrists are more prone to The Yips. Hal Sutton explains that small muscles do not work well under pressure, so rely on the big muscles instead. That is why you see so many pros putt with their shoulders and not their wrists.
Joe

Joe, were you self-taught or did you learn from others? What was the most important thing you learned?
Sammy

Hi Sammy,
I am mostly self-taught, but I did learn some important things from others. In this game you never really stop learning because we all have slumps and we need to know how to get out of slumps. The most important thing I learned was while playing with my first 7-club set I was always faced with shots that were in-between distances, so I had to either swing harder with a shorter club or easier with a longer club. My results were always better by swinging easier with the longer club. Then when I was able to afford a full set of clubs my game was in pretty good shape because there were fewer in-between shots and I already learned the hard way that swinging too hard seldom produces good results.
Joe

Joe,
Can you tell me why is it that the pros take such a huge divot and the ball goes the distance, but when I tend to hit under the ball and get a divot my ball goes half the distance. Why ?
John

Hi John,
The pros are not hitting under the ball, they are hitting down at the ball, striking the ball first and then the ground. They do this on purpose because a downward stroke results in more backspin on the ball. The fairways they play on are very lush, so the divots are usually quite large. Public courses are usually not so lush, so with the same swing the divots are likely to be smaller. In your case, you are probably striking the ground before striking the ball. This is known as a fat shot and that is why it goes only half the distance.
Joe

Joe,
I hit the ball much farther than my buddies, but I cannot seem to beat them. This is so frustrating. I don’t think their short games are that much better than mine, so I am at a loss to figure this out. Any help would be appreciated.
Hal

Hello Hal,
You have got to chart you shots in order to identify which area of your game needs the most attention. For example, do you hit more fairways than you miss? With each of your irons, do you hit the green more often than you miss? When you pitch and chip, do you get the ball within 1-putt range more often than not? Do you 1-putt more often than you 3-putt? If you can answer yes to all these questions, then you should be able to beat your buddies unless they also are saying yes to the same questions. If that is the case, you will have to “raise the bar” on the same questions, you must specify how many times yes must beat no for each question. This is the great thing about golf, you can never be so good that there is no room for improvement. And for people who cannot hit the ball very far, like your buddies, the great equalizer is the short game, so they still have a chance to beat long hitters like you. Every shot is a circumstance that could turn out great or horrible. Your next emotion could be a great thrill or a stunning disappointment, you never know, you can only anticipate, and that’s what makes this game so fascinating.
Joe

Richard,
I can't seem to get my timing back. Especially on my fairway woods and hybrid clubs. I either top the shot or hit it fat. I am a bit stiff now and I may be giving in to the device that is under my left collar bone. Any ideas or drills I can do. I have even gone back to hitting a five or six iron and I have intermittent same problems, with only a good shot every third or fourth time.
Hawk

Hawk I am sending this email to Joe DeLorenzo. Lets see what Joe has to say.
Joe, here is the email I sent you from Hawk. He is 70+ and has just had some kind of transmitter or something installed in his brain to help with the shakes and balance. He is an avid golfer and is trying his best to keep playing. Can you offer anything to him?
Richard

Hello Hawk, I hope you are doing well. It is good to see your love for the game is not going to stop you despite the challenges you are facing. I can imagine this transmitter is sending occasional pulses to your nervous system, and I am not clear on how frequent these pulses occur. If they occur at random times during your swing, I can see why that might cause a twitch that could result in occasional fat and thin shots. It is not easy to focus on one or the other when both are occurring. Here are some things to try. In my book, 30 Ways to Lower Your Scores, there is a concept called the Wagon Wheel, where your head is the hub and your leading arm is a spoke. If the hub moves too much, or if the spoke bends too much, the arc of the swing changes, leading to fat or thin shots. Another possibility is the timing of your weight shift. Do the double clubber drill as shown in the Body Golf videos, because this drill helps ingrain better timing and proper weight shift, you can feel it much more surely. While doing this drill, also think about the Wagon Wheel concepts and hopefully things will start to get better. Good luck to you.
Joe

Question - course conditions in my area are terrible. I have complained at the pro shops but little has changed. How can one person make a difference?

Answer: I am one of those people who are just happy to be out on any course anywhere, so conditions do not bother me so much. However, sometimes I notice the complainers are the same people who do not bother to fill divots or fix ball marks on greens, or rake sand traps. Seems to me if you fail to do those things, you have no right to complain. I hope you are not one of those people, may they be infected by the fleas of a thousand camels. If you already do those little repairs, I take it back, good for you, you are setting a good example. There is one stupid rule that says you can fix ball marks but not spike marks, but I say when everyone is done putting, fix the spike marks also as a courtesy to other golfers. Even if you say the ball mark cannot be yours because you have never hit a green in your sorry life, fix one or two extra anyway, it only takes a moment. Ask you pro shop to post signs saying conditions are not likely to improve much unless all golfers do their part to help correct these things. The sign can also mention the fleas.

Joe,
We have a friend who plays golf with us. He takes a long time to hit the ball. We are uncomfortable and don't know what to do or say to him without hurting our friend's feelings. What is the amount of time one has to hit the ball? How would you approach this problem?Mickey

Hi Mickey,
This is not an easy one. No matter what you say, your friend’s feelings may be hurt. Some people are not even aware that they are playing too slowly, and they act surprised and in denial when they are told to speed up. Furthermore they openly state that they refuse to play sprint golf or polo. If you have a friendly ranger at your course who is good with diplomacy, explain your plight to him or her. Maybe the ranger can explain that your group must pick up the pace OR ELSE. That way no individual is accused, and it establishes a sense of urgency for your group to stay on the clock. If you friend still does not get it, then it is time to say you do not want to get kicked off the course for slow play, so let’s agree to be a little more strict with each other. Let’s line up our shots while others are shooting, and take less than ten seconds to hit when it is our turn. If that doesn’t work, you could solve your problem by inviting Jody to play in your foursome. Read on…

Question for the Evil Twin:
Jody, what would you do about this?
Answer: Diplomacy is not my strong point. People expect wise cracks from me anyway, so I have no problem saying stuff like Please while we are still young, or I think rigor mortis may have set in, or Are you one of the Palace Guardsmen? Or Do you want me to time you with a sundial or a calendar? Or if you stand there much longer you will start to grow roots and attract pigeons.

Joe,
I have a question on what type of shaft to use. I currently have an old set of Great Big Bertha (1997) irons (regular graphite shafts). I do not have an official handicap. My game is all over the place generally high 80's to low 90's on a course of about 6300 yards. I am considering purchasing the new Great Big Bertha irons or the fusion version (2006). Recently, while playing I tried a 7 iron of one my playing partners hitting to a par 3; the club was a GBB 2005 model with a uniflex steel shaft. Compared to my 7 iron the shot I hit exploded off the club face giving me 10-15 yards (approximately 150 yards in total) greater distance. I tried it later in the round with similar results. My swing speed with a 6 iron (Mizuno MP60) was measured at the golf shop at 72 mph. I am 60 years old and seem to be hitting shorter all the time. At what point should one move to graphite senior shafts over regular graphite. Can one expect an increase in swing speed due to the lighter more flexible shaft? Is accuracy greatly reduced?Your opinion is greatly appreciated.Marshall

Hi Marshall,
With irons, I would choose accuracy over distance. There really is no advantage to hitting irons for longer distance. Club manufacturers may brag about this but some of them are only de-lofting the irons. Just because you are holding two different 7 irons does not mean they both have the same loft. The one with the lower loft will hit the ball farther. But why do we want the ball to go farther, just so we can brag that we can sometimes reach a long par 4 with a drive and a 7 iron? Isn’t it better to be able to do the same thing more consistently with a 6 or 5 iron? That being said, I was never a believer that graphite shafts will help your iron play. In my opinion, using stiffer steel shafts will help accuracy. So you lose a little distance, who cares, the upside is that you have less of a distance gap between clubs. The only clubs that matter for distance are your woods, not your irons. Go ahead and get graphite shafts for your woods for distance, but irons are not made for maximum distance, they are made to control distance.
Joe

Joe - I heard they are going to reduce the distance of all golf balls. What is your opinion about this?

Answer:
I heard the Ohio Golf Association (OGA) is going to have a tournament where everyone has to play balls that are issued to them. I never really understood that there are balls that only benefit long hitters, so that makes if sound unfair that shorter hitters cannot gain a similar benefit. If that is the case, that is not a level playing field. I hear the OGA is also allowing the repair of spike marks. Think about it, it is absurd to allow the repair of ball marks but not spike marks. At last, there are officials out there who are capable of rational thought. That kind of restores my faith in the human race. Maybe the OGA can continue to have progressive ideas, like with today's emphasis on pace of play, abolish the stroke and distance penalty, which could get you thrown off the course by marshals enforcing the pace clock, or by other players who must wait while you march back to hit another ball from the original spot. Don't stop now, OGA, lead the way, there are dozens of other rules that could use improvement.

Question for the Evil Twin:
Jody, what do you think about when you swing?

Answer: I like to keep it simple. For example, in the space of two seconds, this is all I bother to think about. Stance squared, knees flexed, spine straight, grip, elbows in, take the club back with straight left arm, break the wrist when the club is knee high, maintain proper ratio of shoulder turn to hip turn, weight 60% on back foot, maintain knee flex, hands up not too high not too low, shaft points parallel to ground at target at top of backswing, pull down with left arm, shift weight to front foot, back elbow to hip, swing path inside out, maintain wrist angle until just before impact, hit down, fold the front elbow in, extend the follow thru outward, point the belly button at the target, right foot up on the toe, and pose like a statue. And that is just my practice swing, my real swing is a little more complex, but basically that’s all there is to it. (note from Joe – and then of course he hits a 20 yard grounder)

Joe,
I hear lots of advice when hitting to a green, to always take an extra club so you do not short-side yourself. Do you agree?
Dean

Hi Dean,
Not always. I would agree if there were no dangers front or back and the green was not severely sloped, but if the green is sloped from back to front, it is far easier to get down in 2 from the front. It is much harder to stop a steep downhill putt near the hole. Many people not only 3-putt from the back, but also will 4-putt from the back if they leave their first putt short because if they miss the second putt it may roll 4 feet past, and I don’t know anyone who has never missed a 4-footer.
Joe

Joe,
I have tried everything to correct the hitting of my second shot FAT. I've moved the ball up, to the middle and to the back. What do you recommend to help me?
Mickey
Long Beach, CA

Hi Mickey,
Fat iron shots can be caused by a number of things, among the possibilities are improper weight shift on the downswing, trying to scoop the ball up instead of hitting down, a sideways sway on the backswing, or head dipping down during the downswing. As I have said several times before, Jack Nicklaus’ instructor used to grab the back of his hair to make sure it remained steady during the swing. Helped his career but gave him a funny looking “do”. Some instructors say it is OK to move your head sideways because it can add power to your swing, but I say extra power is useless if you are prone to hitting fat shots. Keeping the head more steady also helps to prevent overswinging, which is another possible cause for fat shots.
Joe

Joe,
With all the technology improvements in balls and equipment, it is said that older golf courses are becoming obsolete, and people will slowly stop playing them in favor of newer courses. Do you agree?
Aaron

Hi Aaron,
No, I do not agree. Whoever says a course is too short or too easy, ask them if they have ever shot par on it. Chances are they will say no. In that case they have no business saying that. While the techno-geeks may prefer longer courses, there is still a huge base of golfers who do not benefit so much from new technology, so the older courses are just fine for them. Also, the greens fees for older courses are usually lower than fees for the newer courses, so the more affordable courses will always get business from those of us who must watch our budgets.
Joe

Joe,
I get so frustrated with bad shots. I know I can do better because I hit good shots most of the time. How can I succeed in this game?
Sedrik

Hello Sedrik,
Success can be defined in many ways. If you expect perfection, golf will always break your heart. Sam Snead never won the US Open, does that mean he did not have a successful career? Arnold Palmer never won the PGA, was he not a success? Golf is a microcosm of life, neither one offers any guarantees. Golf can be a character builder. It can teach you how to react to adversity, because there will always be adversity, and if you can deal with occasional failure, you can apply this attitude toward other life situations. Golf puts you in situations where a little courage is needed. It lets you dream of the possibilities, so set some personal goals and pursue them, and enjoy the rush of achievement. Golf lets you get away from it all, anticipating the next round on new courses. Appreciate the beauty of nature, and the camaraderie of others. Instead of reprimanding yourself, be able to laugh at yourself when strange things happen, because they always will, you just never know when. Once you understand this, your attitude will improve, and once you begin seeking continuous improvement in whatever you do, you are already a success.
Joe

Joe,
Most of the putts I miss are pulled. I do not want to try anything unconventional to fix this, so I am really concentrating on a perfectly squared stance and keeping my stroke straight back and thru, but unless I try to push it on purpose, the pull is always there. What can I do?
Pat

Hello Pat,
Everyone has natural tendencies. Some instructors will categorize you as a natural push or pull in terms of how many inches left or right (on a 10 foot putt), and then simply tell you to aim that much away from the hole. If that works for you, fine, but in many cases I have found that a squared stance can cause a pull if your ball position is too far forward. Be careful what you consider to be unconventional, open your mind to other possibilities like closing your stance a little by moving your back foot away from the line, and allowing your backstroke to be slightly inside the line. I challenge you to have a contest using this method against your usual method. I predict this new method has a good chance of winning.
Joe

Joe,
I think I have a pretty good putting stroke because I can make straight putts, but I am always mis-reading breaking putts. Sometimes I am not even sure if a putt will break left or right. Is there anything I can try so I can read breaking putts better?
Elmer

Hi Elmer,
Stand on any flat surface (any floor indoors is usually not sloped), close your eyes and notice how your heels feel at the same level as your toes. Also the surface is not causing you to lean to keep your balance. Then find a sloped surface like a driveway or sidewalk and do the same drill. You will probably feel your toes higher or lower than your heels depending on the slope. You will also notice you have to lean a little bit to keep your balance. This also can work on a putting green to give you an idea of which way a putt will break if you are not sure. Another method to try is plumb-bobbing, where you use your putter’s shaft as a plumb-bob by dangling it in front of you as you view the cup. If the cup appears perpendicular to the shaft, the putt is straight. If the cup is tilted, the putt should break in the downward direction of the tilt. It also helps while you are on the fairway to get an overall view of the area around the green to see which way rain water is likely to drain from the green, because putts will generally break in that direction, especially toward ponds or streams. Try these and let us know if they helped.
Joe

Joe,
I am reading in magazines about the “X-factor” where the shoulders are supposed to turn much more than the hips to get extra power. If that is true, why do some instructions say to get a good hip turn, is that not contrary to the X-factor which says to limit the hip turn? Who is correct?
Tom

Hello Tom,
This is one of many areas where people debate which is better, and some of it depends on your body build and your degree of athleticism. Here is my opinion. The X-factor can create some whipping action only if the downswing move is executed properly with the lower body going first. However, rather than limiting the hip turn, I feel you should allow the hips to turn naturally and compare results. I also feel that you can generate even more whipping action with a bigger hip turn as long as your timing on the downswing is correct, again with the lower body going first, as evidenced by the swings of Bobby Jones and John Daly, and how about J.B Holmes who was outdriving everyone in Phoenix recently with a short backswing and big hip turn? Am I mistaken, or did that look a lot like Sensei Mark in the Body Golf videos? This is a good experiment for the practice range, just try varying amounts of hip action and see what works best for you.
Joe

Question - how did Golf get it’s name?

Answer: All the other four letter words were already taken. Actually, I read somewhere that the word was an acronym for Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden. If that is true, what would the game be called if Ladies had invented it? Maybe “WOMAN” for Women Only, Men Are Nothing, or “GIRL” for Game I Really Love. The answer I like best, however, I saw on a T shirt in the gift shop at Marytown in Mundelein, IL, it said Golf Offers Love & Forgiveness.

Joe,
Different ads for putters illustrate that some putters have a little loft to start the ball slightly off the ground while others are saying it is better to get the ball rolling immediately. Which way is better?
Wayne

Hi Wayne,
In my opinion it does not matter. Sometimes you will notice the pros on TV will chip from the fringe with the flag out of the hole because they are trying to hole the shot. That suggests they could putt almost as well with a wedge as they can with a putter, so a little loft is not a bad thing, right? So do you think anyone will design a putter that looks like a wedge? I think not. Just because a lofted ball might skid, does not mean it will skid off line unless it hits an imperfection on the putting surface. Getting the ball rolling immediately and hitting the same imperfection on the putting surface will likely have the same effect. I figure this debate is mostly due to marketing hype trying to sell different types of putters. A straight putt will stay straight whether it rolls immediately or skids a little. Rather than worrying about how the ball rolls, consider most putts are missed due to mis-reads. Any breaking putt has different lines depending on speed. A putt that dies at the hole will need more break than an aggressive putt that would go past the hole. On a breaking putt, even if you have the perfect putter and you make a perfectly straight stroke on the perfect line, you still miss it if the speed is a little too hard or a little too soft because the break will be different. All you can do is try different styles of putters yourself and see which design gives you more confidence. It is confidence that produces the best results.
Joe

Joe,
What kind of stuff would you like to see in the next golf movie?
Greg

Hi Greg,
I would like to see a sequel to “The Greatest Game Ever Played” to capture some of the interesting true stories in the book that the movie left out, such as the young unknown Walter Hagen’s great effort that came very close to winning the same 1913 US Open which was the venue for the movie. The book also had several other colorful characters that could easily make another movie most interesting. I ask all our readers to send this request in to Disney, maybe if they see enough interest, they might do something about it. Maybe they can call it “Greatest Game – Part 2”.
Joe

Joe,
A golfer must really have to be good to get a single digit handicap. I have some buddies who all hit the ball pretty well, but their handicaps vary greatly. Where is this fine line that separates them?
Steven

Hi Steven,
Let’s say on every hole, golfer A and golfer B hit the same number of fairways and the same number of greens. They each chip and pitch the ball the same also. On each hole they are both faced with par putts in the range of 6 to 10 feet. Golfer A is a scratch player because she makes almost every putt in that range. Golfer B is an 18 handicap because he misses almost every putt in that range. There is your fine line. Nobody will ever be a scratch player unless they can get up and down from anywhere near the green. Even the best pros do not hit every green in regulation, so they must have fantastic short games to survive. Yet most golfers think the way to get better is to spend all their practice time banging balls on the range. Many golfers already hit the ball well enough to just get near the green in regulation, but that’s where the real scoring begins. If you cannot make putts consistently in the 6 to 10 foot range, you have simply got to get your chip shots closer to the hole. Scoring is all about the short game. And as Baretta used to say for emphasis, THAT’s the name of THAT tune.
Joe