Joe,
Thicker grips feel better to me, but I am told that a thicker grip will reduce clubhead speed. Is there any truth to this? Also, when putting I seem to do better with a thicker grip. What is your opinion?
Theo

Hello Theo,
The same argument takes place for baseball bats or golf clubs, the thinner the grip, the more bat speed or clubhead speed can be generated. On the other hand, a thicker grip makes the bat or club easier to control, so you have to choose whether you want to be a home run hitter or hit for a higher batting average. Remember, in golf you have to play your foul balls. For putting, it makes sense to me that a thicker grip should work better because it reduces the amount of clubface error caused by hands twisting. A small amount of hand movement turns a skinny grip (and therefore the shaft and the clubface) more than a fatter grip. It would take more hand movement to turn the fatter grip the same amount, so your margin of error is more favorable.
Joe

Joe,
I find this confusing. Why are some drops allowed two club lengths and other drops only one club length? Why don’t they simplify the rules and make it consistent?
Dan

Hi Dan,
If there is a penalty involved, the drop is 2 club lengths. If it is a free drop with no penalty, the drop is one club length. Sergio Garcia once actually incurred an extra 2-stroke penalty by dropping only one club length when he should have dropped two. Because of that penalty he fell back into a playoff and lost the tournament. Personally I think that is absolutely ridiculous, you would think the spirit of the rule means no more than two club lengths, so less would logically seem OK, right? No, wrong. Why? I don’t know, let’s ask Jody.

Jody, my Evil Twin, how would you answer Dan’s questions, why not simplify the rules?
Answer: It must be money. It is the same reason why the virus protection software companies keep the business going by creating new viruses for themselves to solve, and then looking like heroes for charging you money to solve them. For golf, the more complicated you make the rules, the thicker the rule book gets, the more money is made by the printers, the officials, the training seminars, etc. If they really wanted to simplify the rules, they could easily make all drops the same distance. I would pick 2 club lengths since one club length sometimes does not help much. Also, it would also be nice if they would say you can use anything in your bag, because then the telescoping ball retriever would be a good choice.

Joe,
I once had a penalty called on me because I was preparing to putt and the wind slightly moved my ball. Why should that be a penalty when it was not my fault? I did not do anything. How can anyone avoid this?
Phil

Hi Phil,
Here is how to avoid this. Do not ground your club, the penalty only applies after you have addressed the ball. If the club is not grounded, you have not yet officially addressed the ball, so just keep your club hovering above ground. Don’t delay the stroke because it is no penalty if the ball moves after you have begun your stroke. Why is there such a penalty? I don’t know. This is one of many unfair rules that can penalize you for things that are not your fault, and those types you should just leave for tournaments. If you are only playing recreational golf and you call this on somebody, you risk being branded as an anal aperture for the rest of your life.
Joe

Joe,
My natural swing produces a very low shot with a driver, and I have to use a 5 or 7 wood off the fairway because my 3-wood cannot get the ball high enough off the ground. I can drive OK with a 3-wood, but with the smaller head I get the occasional popups, toe shots, or heel shots. I have tried some swing changes but none of them seem to help my shot trajectory. Any suggestions?
Dean

Hi Dean,
Lower shots can be caused by using shafts that are too stiff for you. If that is not the case, you need more lofted clubs. If you cannot find a driver with enough loft, you might want to try a deep-faced oversized 3-wood for your drives. However, the deep face is not recommended for fairway shots because the center of gravity is too high, so just use it for drives. From the fairway you are likely to do better with a thin-faced fairway club such as the “Tight Lies” design because the center of gravity is obviously lower.
Joe

Joe,
I was once not allowed to play because my shirt did not have a collar. On TV I see some of the pros wearing shirts without a collar, if they can do it why can’t anyone else?
Dom

Hi Dom,
Some places have stricter dress codes than others, including restaurants, they just want to make sure people do not show up wearing sloppy T shirts or undershirts. The collarless shirts some of the pros wear are classified as “crew neck” when they have thicker neck lines, and they are usually nicer looking than the average T shirt, however one could argue that a T shirt is also a form of crew neck, and many sweaters or sweatshirts also do not have collars either. If your shirt was not a T shirt but had a thicker collar line, your golf course could have made an exception, but some purists insist that a rule is a rule, and they will defend that rule no matter how dumb it is. Seems like now is a good time for…

…The Evil Twin’s Purist Corner – Point and Counter-Point
Point - A rule is a rule. Tiger likes to wear crew neck shirts, but if he wants to play at a course where they have the collar rule, then he should not be allowed to play, just like anyone else. Furthermore, there is a risk that some astute TV viewer is going to phone all the major courses and find out which ones have that same collar rule, and then try to strip all those major titles from Tiger because he violated a Local rule, playing while illegally adorned.
Counter-Point – I guess you would also agree that there is nothing in the rules to prevent you from playing naked as long as you wear a collared shirt, and of course soft spikes.

Joe,
They say new equipment is ruining the game and making some golf courses obsolete. Is there anything that can be done?
Edie

Hello Edie,
Lee Trevino once said "It’s not the bow and arrow, it’s the Indian". New balls and new clubs, while they do produce more distance, have not actually lowered the average scores for all golfers for many many years, which proves the short game is much more important than the long game. Therefore I don’t think golf courses will become obsolete, except maybe some won’t be chosen for tournament consideration, and since most golfers are not tournament players, they will still be eager to play the shorter courses because they do not get as much benefit from technology as do the tournament players. Technology’s extra distance also translates into shots going further off line and into more trouble, and frankly this becomes more dangerous because more people will be within range of getting hit by errant shots. Realistically, I do not think there will ever be a ban on new technology, so if we ever want to offset the effects of technology, we might have to convince enough people to "think outside the box". For example, we could introduce an alternate set of modified rules which could keep any course from becoming obsolete. Let’s say for the sake of discussion, this new set of rules could be called "Shotmaker’s Rules" or "Finesse Rules", whereby you could only use 7 clubs, so the wild driver may not be a good choice. This would put less emphasis less on power and more emphasis on finesse back into the game, having to adjust how hard you swing instead of having so many clubs that you can use the same monotonous swing for almost any distance. To make up for the disadvantage of using fewer clubs, all penalties would be only 1 stroke (no loss of distance) and you get to improve your lie. The rules then become a lot simpler, and the pace of play becomes a lot quicker. However, I am sure the clubmakers would not be in favor of selling fewer clubs, so this idea may not gain much support. However, you might be very very surprised that if you were ever to try this, your scores will probably not be much different than your usual scores with a full set of clubs. If that is true, wherefore art thou, technology, where is thy sting?
Joe

Joe,
I'm considering buying some new irons. I currently own ping isi with a swing weight of c-9. I would like to have a better feel of where the club head is...this is where your advise would be appreciated. I'm 60 years, work out daily and in excellent condition. My swing speed is near 90 and is slow and rhythmic. Any ideas?? I'm told the average swing weight is d-2, d-4 is this right?? Thanks in advance,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Some people like a lighter feel, some like a heavier feel. Some people hit poorly with clubs that feel good, and when they try clubs that do not feel as good, they are surprised to see better shots, and then those clubs start feeling better in a hurry. Base your decision by comparing results for different swingweights. Theories about specs are no guarantees. Many golfers want to give themselves every possible technical advantage to improve, and swingweight is one spec aimed at giving a consistent feel for all clubs in your set, by comparing the weight of the clubhead to the overall weight of the entire club. The higher the letter, the heavier the club (d is heavier than c), and the higher the number, the higher the weight ratio is from clubhead to the whole club. Some people think this ratio is important, but I think there are a lot of other technical factors at play that are more important than swingweight. The ratio is not the same from club to club anyway because the heads on shorter irons have more mass than the longer irons, yet they have shorter shafts, so it is hard to imagine every club feeling the same. So what usually happens in your c-9 set, for example, is that you might hit the shorter irons better than the longer irons, and with a d-4 set you might hit the longer irons better than the shorter irons. Since the shorter irons are the scoring clubs, most golfers will give up on the whole set if they cannot hit the shorter irons, even if they hit the long irons very well. So they embark on a never ending journey to seek the perfect set. That is partly the reason we are seeing new sets with hybrid clubs instead of long irons, the longer clubs simply need more mass. Swingweights are also changed when grip weights are added, or when lead tape is applied to the clubheads. So rather than focusing on swingweight, pay more attention to shaft flex and lie angle. If you still feel swingweight is that important to you, find a 7-iron that you really like and have the swingweight measured, and use that as a guide to get your next set.
Joe

Joe,
does it do any good to talk to your golf ball out loud?
Answer: Sure, especially when your opponent is swinging.

The Evil Twin’s Purist Corner - Point and Counter-Point:

Point - Prayers are not allowed on golf courses. If you call on God to improve the results of a shot while it is still in motion, you are using "an outside agency" and subject to appropriate penalties under the rules of golf.

Counter-Point - So penalize me. Let us pray. May thy ball lie in green pastures and not in still waters. Amen.

Joe,
Why do the pros preach fundamentals, yet their swings all look different?
Davey

Hello Davey,
There is a difference between fundamentals (what everyone should do) and mannerisms (individual peculiarities). Most of the mannerisms occur on the backswing, because the backswing’s only purpose is to arrive at a strong hitting position at the top, and to achieve that, it may not matter how you get there (right, Jim Furyk fans?). From there, the fundamentals take over, and the downswing happens so quickly that you may not notice the pros all do the same thing (lower body weight shift to the front foot, and moving the back elbow to the front of the hip before ball contact). Once the ball is struck, the differences in the follow thru positions again are mostly mannerisms (right, Arnold Palmer fans?).
Joe

Joe,
There are so many tips in magazines, books, audios, videos, TV, etc. and some of these tips contradict each other. How is a person to know which ones to believe and which ones not to believe?
Ben

Hi Ben,
There are a couple of reasons for contradictions. Most tips come from people who have successfully used them, but that does not mean these tips will work for everyone else. Tip #1 might work for golfer #1 but not for golfer #2, but golfer #2 uses tip #2 which is the opposite of tip #1. For example, some say to start the backswing with no wrist action, others say to set the wrist cock early. Some say to use the “X-factor” by limiting hip action, others say to use more hips. All you can do is try them both and see which one works better for you. Another reason is the plight of any writer who has a contract to come up with a different article every week, or every month, this writer always has to think of something new to write about, and when it comes to golf tips, just about every idea has been used up already, so that makes it difficult to sound new and creative all the time. So to avoid repeating the same stuff, they might borrow ideas from others, and those ideas may be against something the same writer said before, who knows? That is why I prefer the question and answer approach. Even if I get the same question multiple times, I can always give a consistent answer explained a little differently for those who may not have seen or understood the same questions before. To answer your question on who to believe, I would not trust those who threaten that you must do every little thing their way or else you will fail, because that falsely assumes everyone has the same body build and degree of athleticism. Precision positions and moves that work for one person may not work for another person. Rather than thinking about 142 things during a swing, you have a better chance believing those who can keep things simple, because simplicity leads to better understanding.
Joe

A Series Of Unfortunate Events
Jack and Jill, both novices, are playing a fun round at the local municipal golf course. Jill is not a long hitter, but she gets the ball airborne consistently when the lie is good, and her main enjoyment comes from watching the ball fly. Jack hits the ball far, but not very accurately. On a long par 5, Jack drives OB, then hits again into the rough and cannot find his ball. Since he expected to find it he did not bother hitting a provisional, so he had to march back to the tee and hit again, finally hitting the fairway, but into a divot. Jill, meanwhile, is also in a divot, and she knows she is not good enough yet to get the ball airborne from a divot, so she moves the ball to a better lie and continues to make the ball fly, reaching a greenside bunker in 5 shots. Jack, meanwhile, skulls his divot shot into a fairway bunker and into a footprint. Then, while addressing the ball, his club accidentally touches the sand. Then his shot fails to clear the lip of the bunker and he slams his club into the sand in disgust. The ball rolls down into the crater he made. He finally reaches the fringe of the green in 2 more shots. Jill, meanwhile, finds her ball is also in a footprint, and she knows she is not good enough yet to execute that shot, so she moves her ball to a more level spot, and chips the ball onto the green about 50 feet from the cup, and waits for Jack to catch up, ribbing him about how much slower men are than women. The following group of golfers are gaining on them. Jack’s putt from the fringe hits the pin and comes to rest a foot from the hole. Jill, noticing the waiting golfers behind them, does not waste any time, and her putt glances off Jack’s ball, hits the pin, and comes to rest an inch away. While she is about to tap it in, a gust of wind moves her ball. Jack makes his putt from where his ball came to rest, and with steam coming out of his ears, he needs a calculator to figure the scores. Jill chuckles and said she only hit the ball 8 times, not bad for a novice.
Question #1 – Who won the hole?
Question #2 – Who had the most fun?
Question #3 – Which question is more important, especially for novices?

Joe,
What would be a good epitaph for a golfer?
Answer: He spent his whole life trying to get the ball into the hole, and now he is in there himself.

Joe,
Help me settle an argument. The idea of hitting a provisional ball is supposed to save time. My tee shot had a long carry over water and I saw it land near the bank on the other side, but I could not tell if it stayed in the rough or fell back into the water, so I wanted to hit a provisional, but I was told I could not, because provisionals are only for lost balls outside water hazards. So I had to walk all the way around the lake to look for my ball, and when I could not find it I had to walk all the way back to the tee and hit again. The groups behind me were really peeved at me so they called the Ranger who scolded me for slow play. I guess I should have hit the provisional anyway, whether anyone liked it or not, right?
Paul

Hi Paul,
The rules do not allow for a provisional in this case (water), if you hit another ball, that would immediately become the ball in play, and you would be lying 3 whether you found your first ball or not. This is one of many examples where the rule should be changed, especially with today’s emphasis on pace of play. Provisionals are not the real issue for saving time because you really only need them for stroke and distance penalties. The real issue in wasted time is the stroke and distance penalty itself, which is long overdue to be abolished. If there were no distance penalties, you would never have to walk back to your original spot, so there would be no need for provisionals. You would either find your ball or take a penalty, simply dropping nearest the spot where it would most likely have been (this idea is already in the Rules for casual water). This would allow OB or lost balls to be handled the same way as a lateral water hazard. This would improve the pace of play in all instances. I think after I make my first couple billion dollars, I will be like Donald Trump and buy the USGA. Then I will ask if anyone thinks the stroke and distance rule is a good rule, and to anyone who says yes, I will simply say “You’re Fired”.
Joe

Joe,
You say to have contests with your own type of stroke against another type of stroke. Won’t this mess up your regular stroke if you are trying to make it more consistent?
Mitch

Hi Mitch,
Unless you have the work ethic of Vijay Singh, who spends all day every day keeping his stroke grooved, I believe it is a false hope for most of us to think our swings will stay consistently grooved if we try to swing only one way all the time. Many golfers also play softball or tennis or other sports, so you have to believe these things will have some effect on your golf swing, more so than simply trying some variations. There are other activities that cause your muscles to change on a daily basis (like lifting weights or helping someone move heavy furniture), so it seems logical to me that your swings are always going to change a bit whether you realize it or not. I will even go so far as to say that anyone who refuses to participate in any other activities for fear of losing their golf swing is playing with a house of cards, which means the house will come tumbling down unless you do nothing but golf. It might sound like heresy to say the following, but there is more to life than golf (don’t hit me for saying that, Vijay). Besides, if a person never wants to try variations, what will that person do when a slump arrives? We all get slumps. Believe it. Deal with it. Feel the joy of overcoming it. Find a swing that allows simple corrections when your muscles change slightly, as they always will, whether you like it or not.
Joe

There were 13 original rules of golf, and here they are:
1. You must Tee your Ball, within a Club’s length of the Hole.2. Your Tee must be upon the Ground.3. Your are not to change the Ball which you Strike off the Tee.4. Your are not to remove, Stones, Bones or any Break Club for the sake of playing your Ball, Except upon the fair Green & that only within a Club’s length of your Ball.5. If your Ball comes among Watter, or any Wattery Filth, your are at liberty to take out your Ball & bringing it behind the hazard and Teeing it, you may play it with any club and allow your Adversary a Stroke for so getting out your Ball.6. If your Balls be found anywhere touching one another, You are to lift the first Ball, till you play the last.7. At Holling, you are to play your Ball honestly for the Hole, and, not to play upon your Adversary’s Ball, not lying in your way to the Hole.8. If you shou’d lose your Ball, by its being taken up, or any other way, you are to go back to the Spot, where you struck last & drop another Ball, and allow your Adversary a Stroke for the misfortune.9. No man at Holling his Ball, is to be allowed, to mark his way to the Hole with his Club or, any thing else.10. If a Ball be stopp’d by any person, Horse, Dog, or any thing else, The Ball so stop’d must be played where it lyes.11. If you draw your Club, in order to Strike & proceed so far in the Stroke, as to be bringing down your Club; if then, your Club shall break, in, any way, it is to be Accounted a Stroke.12. He, whose Ball lyes farthest from the Hole is obliged to play first.13. Neither Trench, Ditch, or Dyke, made for the preservation of the Links, nor the Scholar’s Holes or the Soldier’s Lines, Shall be accounted a Hazard; But the Ball is to be taken out/Teed/ and play’d with any Iron Club.

Joe,
You seem to always give a hard time to “purists”. How do you define a purist?
Answer – It’s all in fun, don’t take it too seriously. A purist is one who will defend a law or rule no matter how stupid the law or rule is, instead of working to get it changed, or using some common sense depending on the situation. You cannot legislate common sense. An example of a golf purist might be a guy who insists on marking his ball one inch from the cup just because someone else is away, because proper etiquette says you should not shoot unless you are away. People with some common sense would just tap the ball in to save time. Anyway, let’s have some fun with this, I hereby announce the creation of “The Purist Corner”.

The Purist Corner – Point and counter-point:
Point – (Mantra) – A rule is a rule and you cannot change the rule because all rules are good rules.
Counter-Point – Not all rules are good rules. If you don’t believe that, be careful when you go to Arizona, in some parts they have a local rule that says “When being attacked by a criminal or burglar, you may only protect yourself with the same weapon that the other person possesses”. So if the criminal has a knife and you have a gun, you cannot use the gun to protect yourself, because if you do, you are breaking the rule.
You Make The Choice – which makes more sense, to seek to have rules improved when they do not make sense, or choose to meekly sit by and condone injustices? In this case, purists, before you get stabbed, you might consider breaking the rule (gasp!).

Joe,
Why do we need separate water hazard rules for lateral?
Larry

Hi Larry,
Due to the way the rule was written, you have to drop BEHIND the spot where the ball entered the water, along the line to the hole. Therefore if you hit the ball in the ocean, you might have to drop in Australia if it were not for the lateral rule. If it were up to me, I would change the wording of the rule to get rid of the phrase “behind the spot” to allow dropping at the nearest relief point no closer to the hole, then we would not need two separate rules. If the purists object, I would take away the lateral rule and make the purists drop in Australia.
Joe

Joe,
While viewing older films of the pros’ putting strokes, I noticed that they used a lot of wrist action, unlike today’s players who say we are supposed to use very little or no wrist action at all. Why not, if it used to work in the past?
Pat

Hello Pat,
It is true, most instruction says to keep the wrists out of the putting stroke. One explanation I have heard is that the greens of yesterday were slower than the greens of today, so more wrist was needed. Another explanation was that the wrist action is more prone to The Yips, but not everyone gets these Yips. Some people have a better feel for distance control by using more wrist action. Although this is not widely used, my personal opinion is that you should have a contest on the practice green between your arm stroke and your wrist stroke and see which one wins. You will never know unless you try it, maybe you are not prone to yips. Even if it doesn’t work, at least you will have more confidence that you have proven your regular stroke is better. In my own contests, I have found that a wristy putting stroke can work almost as well as an arm/shoulder stroke if there are no other moving parts (the arm stroke sometimes causes my balance to shift). To help keep the arms and body still, I press my front elbow to my side. The grip that seems to work the best is the reverse overlap grip, which helps to keep the clubface square to the target, even with wrist action. However, the wrist stroke cannot be too quick or else you will lose distance control or twist the putter face off line. Make the stroke very slow and deliberate and concentrate on keeping the putter face on line all the way as you follow thru. Again, whether it is putting, chipping, pitching, or full swing, have those contests to see which type of stroke can stand up to the pressure of competition.
Joe

Joe,
What is the worst advice you have ever heard in golf instruction?
Wayne

Hi Wayne,
I don’t like hearing or reading that you have to get worse before you get better, presumably because the theory says the correct mechanics take time to become ingrained, sometimes months. This may be true for those who can afford to have their swings monitored every day to make sure the mechanics are still correct and not lapsing back into older incorrect habits, but what about those people who cannot afford constant monitoring, what if they THINK they are performing the new mechanics OK but they really are not, that means they will never get better just by trusting a concept. I say this is bad advice for the average golfer, who will never be able to build any confidence while getting worse, with no idea how long it might take to see improvement. These poor people will have basically wasted months of lost enjoyment. That’s depressing. You cannot expect swing mechanics to be the same for everyone, you must first take into account a person’s body build and level of athleticism. Everyone is built differently with differing ranges of motion in every muscle compared to a better player, so it may not be reasonable to assume you will ever be able to swing exactly the same way as the better players. Sam Snead was so limber he could kick the top of a doorway while standing on the other foot (you can look up the photos), how many people do you know who can do that? If most people tried to swing like Tiger Woods with the same range of motions, I think they might sprain half the muscles in their bodies. Life is too short to waste several months getting worse with no guarantee that you will ever get any better. Find instruction that can show you simple ways to improve immediately, even slight improvements over time are better than getting worse first.
Joe