Joe,
Why do you think Tiger Woods wants to change his swing from time to time?
Sid

Hello Sid,
Tiger is not the only one. Jack Nicklaus admitted to be always tinkering with his swing, and so did many others. We humans are easily fooled into thinking that once we are swinging good, we will always swing like that forever. We forget that a golf swing involves hundreds of different body muscles, all of which get stronger or weaker every day, and therefore your swing changes without you even realizing it. Therefore we all must get used to the idea that a golf swing is never permanent, you will always have to find ways to adjust. Many times you will hear of a golfer having to “manufacture” a swing in the middle of a tournament because his or her old swing was not working anymore. All our swings are a continuous works in progress, and those who understand how to make adjustments have a big advantage over those who insist on swinging only one way just because it used to work in the past. In other words, your swing thoughts may be the same, but your muscles are not behaving the same way as they did in the past.
Joe

Joe, I heard psychologists and psychiatrists were studying The Yips. What have they found out?
Stosh

Hi Stosh,
I found this in “The Greatest Game Ever Played” by Mark Frost, which by the way is one of the best golf books ever written. The symptoms are categorized by psychologists and psychiatrists as specific expression of a diagnosable anxiety disorder. At their worst, the brain literally ceases to function, the ability to focus evaporates, inappropriate thoughts light up the mind like firecrackers, small-muscle motor control vanishes. For people who have never fallen into their grip, it is difficult to comprehend the unholy terror the yips inspire. Psyches crumble. Strong men weep. Some decide to give up the game rather than continue to face the furies that descend upon them. That’s just among amateurs, imagine what it’s like when you depend on making putts for a living.
Joe

Joe,
I wonder if u can help me with this problem. My shots are going much towards the left when I am using the 6,7 irons. If I become too conscious, keep my eyes on the ball etc, I end up slicing the ball much to the right. The phenomena is more pronounced during tee off. Interestingly it does not happen with 5 or 4 iron. Can u help me out. I am a starter with about 6 months into the game.Regards and a happy 2005.
Major Harpreet

Hello Major,
Also a happy 2005 to you. Are you a Major in the Army or Air Force? I'm still laughing because a Major is playing military golf (left-right-left-right). First of all it is not uncommon for anyone to have problems with one or more clubs behaving differently than the other clubs because there is no such thing as a perfectly matched set. This is why serious golfers are having the lie angles of their irons adjusted either more upright or more flat. More upright reduces a slice, more flat reduces a hook. In your case, I think you might be coming across the ball at impact from the outside in. If you do that while your clubface is square, you will tend to hit a pulled shot with no slice. If the clubface is slightly open, your shot will tend to start off as a pull and then slice. This is why you must try to swing from the inside out, because your body turn will bring the club back to square at impact.
Joe

Joe, what do you think of the one-ball rule?
Answer: Here is another case where golf becomes more a game of legalisms rather than a game of skill. Do you really think that someone can really benefit that much by switching balls between shots? Gee, I think I will use a distance ball for drives and switch to a high spin ball for approach shots, a floating ball for water holes, a wiffle ball for short flop shots over a bunker to a tight pin, and then for putting I will use a ball with a built-in gyroscope to reduce the breaks and a built-in magnet to attract it to the cup. Plllllllease!

Joe,
Last summer I had a money match against one of my buddies, and I was winning until the last hole, which is adjacent to the first hole. I sliced my drive into the right rough which is shared by the first hole and I noticed a guy on the first hole was playing a shot from about the same spot. Apparently he hit his drive to the same area. When I got there my ball was gone but there was another ball in the same spot, I think he hit my ball by mistake. He was in a power cart so he was gone before I could reach that spot. I was going to take a penalty for a lost ball, but my buddy said it was not my fault, he saw where my drive was and he agreed the other guy probably hit my ball by mistake, and therefore I did not need to take a penalty. Since I cannot prove this, I feel guilty because I like to follow the rules. Who is right, and who should get the money?
Adam

Hello Adam,
First of all, I have to commend you for honesty, and commend your buddy for sportsmanship. If you are playing by strict tournament rules, I suppose it has to be a lost ball penalty, but in a tournament this is not as likely to happen, so I think the term “recreational rules” apply here since you don’t have forecaddies, even if you are playing for money. Logic says it is not your fault that if someone else hits your ball, but some rules are devoid of logic. If you feel that strongly about applying penalties that have nothing to do with the skill of the contest, then I would suggest you conveniently forget to sign the scorecard, thereby disqualifying both of you, so give your money to charity!
Joe

Joe,
What is the single most important move a golfer can make during a golf swing?
Eddie

Hi Eddie,
If I tell you, I will have to shoot you. Oh, all right, here it is, Merry Christmas. You are likely to get a lot of different opinions about this topic, but here’s mine and here’s why: As you start your downswing, move your back elbow in front of your hip before you strike the ball. This one move makes 4 other good things happen without even having to think about each one. It helps your lower body weight to shift from the back leg to the front leg. It promotes an inside-out swing path. It helps you hit downward at the ball. It helps to delay the wrist break until you really need it. Watch the slow motion replays of the pros on TV, also the stop-action camera shots in magazines, and you will see they all do this elbow move, no matter how different their swings otherwise may look.
Joe

Joe,
I just got appointed to be in charge of my golf league for next year, but I am finding it very tricky trying to correctly arrange matches. How can I make a league schedule that makes sure that everyone plays everyone else at least once, and there are no duplications or omissions?
Jim

Hi Jim,
As an example, draw a picture of a skinny clock with numbers and draw lines across like this, 12-1, 11-2, 10-3, 9-4, 8-5, 7-6. This is your first day’s competition. Then keep 12 in the same position while “rotating” (like a dial) all the other numbers clockwise one position (whatever number is left of the 12 will jump over it) and then draw new lines across in similar fashion. If you draw the lines correctly, the result would be 12-11, 10-1, 9-2, 8-3, 7-4, 6-5. This represents your second day of competition. Repeat this process for each new day of competition, just keep “rotating the dial” while keeping the top number in the same place, and draw new lines across. This process will work for any number of players. For an odd number of players, the 12 (or whatever your highest number is) simply becomes the Bye, same process.
Joe

Joe,
Are balls retrieved from water hazards as good as new balls?
Will

Hi Will,
I read somewhere that testing showed the “pond” balls travel only a few yards less than new balls on the average. What these tests did not say is how many yards does any ball lose after it has been used for awhile, even without being in a pond. My guess is that the more a ball is used, the less distance it will travel anyway, pond or no pond. If you have a lot of money, and you want every single yard possible, use new balls. If you are like most people who want to save money, you might choose to use “experienced” balls that you find for free and live with the loss of a few yards, and save some new balls for longest drive contests.
Joe

Joe,
Thankyou for your wonderful tips. let me tell you that i am a girl playing golf since six months and has a 24 handicap. my game was going fine till 4 and a half months but now i can't see any improvment in my game rather it is becoming worse than before. pl. can you tell me the reason for this?
pal

Hello Pal,
If you have only been playing for 6 months, and your handicap indicates you can already break 100, then you have already achieved more improvement than most beginners. However, I like your attitude that you are not satisfied and you want to improve more. Most golfers go thru periods of non-improvement, and part of this is due to slumps (read Sam’s question from yesterday). If you want to improve more, ask yourself the following questions, and if any answer is NO, then work on that part of the game until the answer is YES. Do you make more short putts than you miss? Do you lag more long putts to within 3 feet than not? Do you get more chip shots within 10 feet than not? Do you get more pitch shots within 20 feet than not? Do you get more greenside bunker shots within 20 feet than not? Do you hit more greens with short irons than not? With longer clubs do you get within chipping distance more often than not? Do you keep your drives in the fairway more often than not? Aside from this, you can lower your handicap to 18 if you can bogey every hole, so keep track of every reason that you happen to score worse than bogey on any hole, and then work to eliminate those specific reasons. Good luck!
Joe

Joe,
What causes slumps and how can we avoid them?
Sam

Hello Sam,To execute a golf swing, your body uses hundreds of different muscles of varying sizes and shapes, all trying to work together at the same time. Every day, each one of these muscles gets stronger or weaker, bigger or smaller, in different combinations, depending on how you use them in your daily activities. On any given day, some of these muscles will have a greater or lesser effect on your swing without you realizing it. Trying to make all these muscles work together with precise timing and direction while they are all forever changing in size and strength is a never ending battle. Nobody can ever avoid slumps entirely, everybody gets them, but you can reduce their frequency and their severity by adopting a daily exercise routine to strengthen certain muscles, and to induce “motor muscle memory”. You have to train your swing muscles to behave in a consistent manner. Consider the right handed golf pros who know all the right moves. Does that mean they can play the game just as well left handed? No? Why not, they know all the right moves, don’t they? Realistically, knowing the right moves is not enough, you have to practice them in order to execute them consistently. The more you practice the right moves, the better you get. This goes for everything in life, not just golf. While inducing motor muscle memory, make sure you are training you muscles with the CORRECT moves, because if you induce incorrect moves, they will be much harder to “undo” once your muscles are trained to behave that way.
Joe

Joe,
Whenever I have a short downhill sidehill putt, I get so nervous that if I miss it, it will roll way past the hole unless I baby it, so my stroke gets affected because I am afraid I might baby it too much. Any tips on how to deal with these Yips?
Dutch

Hi Dutch,
Instead of worrying about missing it, tell yourself that you are going to execute the putt to the best of your ability, and even if it does not go in, at least you can say you gave it your best shot with a decent stroke instead of missing it due to a tentative stroke. That’s what The Yips are all about, causing you to make a tentative stroke. The only way to defeat The Yips is to get determined enough to tell yourself that you are not going to make a tentative stroke, you are going to execute the proper stroke no matter what. In the meantime I would suggest you go to a couple of different practice greens and place your ball in similar downhill sidehill positions and keep practicing them until you get a better feel on how to handle them, then you can build a feeling of confidence with those types of putts, or any other tricky types of putts, especially those that you have the most trouble with.
Joe

Joe, why don’t recreational golfers follow the all the Rules of Golf so we can all have a level playing field?

Answer: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. Pros have the best equipment, the best custom fitting, personal swing coaches, the best caddies to give them exact yardage to the pin, and to recommend club selections, and to carry and clean their clubs, and forecaddies to find their ball. They get to practice and play every day on the world’s finest courses. Recreational golfers, for the most part, are at a disadvantage because they cannot afford these luxuries. They are not even allowed to get yardage from an inaccurate optical device, so they must make their own decisions without a caddie’s advice (it could be a penalty to ask anyone else). When pros play, it is just a day at the office, when recreational golfers play, it is a special event. Greens fees can be expensive, so recreational golfers should get their money’s worth by enjoying the game using simplified rules, and not have their round spoiled by USGA-holes. Leave the nit-picky rules for the tournaments. People who play recreational golf do not get to play as often as they would like and they look forward to the enjoyment shot making, and you can’t make good shots out of divots, or sand shots out of footprints, or having to putt thru someone else’s spike marks, or having to hit a ball with mud on it, even the pros have lift-clean-place rules sometimes, even though their courses are much nicer than yours. Do you really think your lies on public courses are likely to be as good as lies on the highly manicured Tour courses? Come on, wake up and smell the coffee. For recreational golf, you can reduce the 162 page rule book a few sentences. For example: If a technical infraction happens to occur, ask this question: Did this infraction have anything to do with gaining an unfair advantage, or did this have anything to do with the skill of shot making? If the answer to both is NO, then for recreational golf there is no need for a penalty, play on. Or, if you enjoy being punched in the nose, you can endear yourself to others (especially those who beat you) by hiding their scorecards so they can’t sign them, and then disqualifying them because they forgot to sign their scorecards.

Joe,
I keep reading about older clubs that had names instead of numbers. Can you tell us which of these names match up to today’s numbered clubs?
Cal

Hi Cal,
There were lots of variations in the older named clubs, so you may find different definitions depending on where you look up the information, but in general, a Brassie is a fairway wood. That name came from the brass plate on the bottom to reduce wear. A normal Brassie was a 2-wood, if it had more loft it was a Spoon (3-wood) or a Cleek (4 or 5-wood). A Mashie was like a 5-iron, a Niblick was like an 8-iron, and in between was a Mashie-Niblick (6 or 7-iron). There are others, depending on where they were made. I do not like today’s terms, I think it is stupid to call a 3-wood a 3-metal just because it is no longer made of wood because a 3-iron is also made of metal (duh). We don’t really want to use terms like 3-composite or 3-titanium, do we? I think the solution is to go back to using the old names. My clubs are usually named with 4-letter words, except for the “helicopter” because that’s what it looks like when I throw it.
Joe

Joe,
Will it help to buy an expensive putter?
Pam
Hi Pam,
Putting is the great equalizer in golf, it allows short hitters to have a chance to beat the long hitters who can’t putt very well. When you count all the strokes used for each of your clubs for any round, the putter by far is used the most times, so it makes sense to get a putter that you like. That does not mean it has to be an expensive putter. Consider this, even if you have a perfect putting stroke, you still will not make very many putts unless you read the green perfectly, and who is perfect? The reverse is also true, if you are good at reading greens, you still will not make very many putts if you stroke it too hard or too soft. To make matters more complicated, even if you read the green correctly and make a perfect stroke, the putt may still hit an imperfection in the green and lip out. The answer to your question, in my opinion, is that there is a good chance you can putt just as well with a cheap putter as you can with an expensive putter, just find one that feels good and have a contest between that one against a borrowed goochy-fufu-expensive one and see which one wins the contest. The mind is a powerful thing, so you are more likely to make a more confident stroke with a putter that you like, expensive or not. It is the confident stroke that makes you a better putter, more so than the type of club.
Joe

Joe,
Why is it that I can get my old persimmon fairway woods up in the air more easily than today’s metal headed fairway clubs? I have tried several metals but I can’t seem to get them off the ground consistently.
Monty

Hi Monty,
I have noticed the same thing, and I think it is due to the metal plate on the bottom of the persimmon woods making the center of gravity much lower than today’s metal fairway woods. The metal woods that seem to work the best are the really thin ones like Tight Lies, because they are so thin, the center of gravity has to be lower than the center of the ball. I think the idea of bi-metal or tri-metal might help if the metal sandwich has the heavier metal on the bottom to lower the center of gravity.
Joe (see my Bio at thinkandreachpar.com)

Joe,
All I want for Christmas is the single most important move a golfer can make during a swing.
Eddie

Hi Eddie,
OK, but you will have to be a good little boy first, and wait until Christmas for it.
Joe

Joe,
I live in Canada where the season is very short. Any tips on winter golf?
Answer: Don’t eat yellow snow.

Joe,
I watch lots of golf programs on TV, such as the PGA Tour and I notice that the leading arm or left arm of the pros are always straight right to the top of the back swing during tee off, and fairway shots. I would appreciate if you can tell me how they do that or perhaps what sort of drill to do to maintain a straight left arm during the back swing. Thanks again and bye.
JLIM

Hello Jlim,
The straight arm allows the widest possible swing arc, which leads to higher clubhead speed. If you are having trouble keeping the arm straight, perhaps you are trying to take the arms too far back without enough shoulder turn. Try making the arms work together with the shoulders, and if the elbow starts to bend, do not go back any further.
Joe

Joe,
I finally set my ego aside and moved to a senior flex shaft from a stiff shaft. The first thing I noticed was, someone told me, was the “whip action” of the shaft. The first time was by accident…the ball went long… 260 yards, high with a slight fade. I had slowed down my swing speed from 96 mph to around 80 mph…like I just wanted to hit my drive 100 yards.
Now..how to I repeat this action?
Thanks for any suggestions
Larry

Hi Larry,
In my opinion, if you have a swing speed of 96, a senior flex shaft is too flexible for you. If you try to slow your swing down to 80, the chances are you will not be able to repeat that swing consistently, sometimes you will swing just a little too fast or a little to slow, and the shaft will flex a little too much or a little too less, and as a result you will hit a lot of wild shots. If the stiffer shaft was not working for you, I am guessing you just wanted more distance, but your accuracy was OK, right? If so, try a regular shaft instead of a senior shaft. Good luck.
Joe

Joe,
Shanks. I play on a 10 handicap and on average every couple of rounds I shank the ball badly with irons. My swing is on the correct path I am told and I hit a straight ball. I suspect that my hands drift away from my body nearing impact as I often hit the ball towards the heel of my driver when I start swinging too hard or towards the end of the game when I am maybe getting tired. Would this be the cause and what is the best fix or practice drill to remedy the shank?Regards,Pat.

Hello Pat,
I also had the shanks in the past, and it is a horrifying feeling to see the ball go 45 degrees off line, that can really ruin a round. In my case my weight was too much on my toes. The problem went away when I put my weight more on my heels. This does not mean it will also work for you, because maybe you are already on your heels, I don’t know. If so, you can try a more upright swing because a flat swing will tend to go more outward when you swing hard, as you described. Also when golfers get tired their swings tend to flatten a bit so that could explain it. I hope this helps. Good luck.
Joe (see my Bio at thinkandreachpar.com)