Fear of Water Hazards Overcome!

 

I was twenty-five years old when I actually started playing golf.  I learned to fear water hazards that day, a condition that plagued me for many years and the only thing I didn’t like about golf.  After many years I learned how to overcome that fear, and I did it at the 18th hole of the Habitat Golf Course in Valkaria, Florida.  This hole is a par five that crosses two big water hazards.  The first hazard needs to be cleared from the tee, the second needs to be cleared on a second shot if  I would have any chance of making par.

I’ll have more to say about this course in another blog, so stay tuned.

My wife and I were living in Richmond, Virginia, and we moved into an apartment building where all the other residents were around our own age.  A couple of the guys invited me to play golf, volunteered to supply me with borrowed clubs and balls and teach me what they could, so I accepted.

About five hundred yards, over two water hazards that make it interesting

We played at the Ethelwood Golf Course which has since been plowed under to build a beltway around the city.  I shot a 109 that day, and I was hooked!  I was so taken with this game that I went out and bought a complete set of brand new Ram clubs, a Gene Littler series.  I have never done worse that that day, and in a couple of weeks I broke 100.  We went every weekend, and the first time the other guys couldn’t go I went by myself and hooked up with whatever twosome or threesome would have me.

The view from what passes as a hill in Central Florida, between the 1st and 18th fairways, looking back toward the 18th tee, off to to the right at the end of the water

Playing the first time with borrowed equipment and golf balls, I was very leery of trying to hit shot over water.  My lack of ball striking ability caused an increase in the population of golf balls at the bottom of the water hazards on that course.  I heard about the “water ball” process of playing golf, so I adopted it.  Still, I was losing water balls at an alarming rate and was too proud, stubborn, or whatever reason (stupid, maybe), to play from the drop areas.

From the tee box. The white tees are ahead, the first water hazard is between them and the sand ahead. Tee shot should clear water and sand.

Many years later I moved to Florida, for economic reasons.  When I had the chance to play golf again, I found that my old fear was still with me.  Water hazards are legion in Florida, so I had to get over it.  Here’s what I did.  

I changed my attitude.  

Too simple to work?  Well, let’s see.

The view from where your ideal tee shot would land. Green is over the water to the right.

Oh, that 18th hole. It’s a beautiful hole, as you can tell from the photos. I used to lose balls in both hazards, so it  seemed the logical place to work to overcome the fear.  Climbing into my golf cart after finishing the 17th, I would begin telling myself, “I love this hole.  I love this hole.  I love this hole,” over and over.  I would keep it up as I decarted (how to you like that word?) at the 18th tee box.  I began to play that hole well.  It no longer intimidated me, and I gained confidence playing it.  That confidence has carried over to other holes and other courses.  I’m not saying I par it all the time, but I have parred it – and now if I hit one in the water I’m not devastated by it.

The view from where your ideal second shot would land. Green is to the right of the bunker in the center.

Now, I’m not saying this will work for you.  But it did work from me, and you’ve got nothing to lose if you try it.

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What’s with the Hybrid Golf Clubs?

 

Until recently I hadn’t played much golf for a while.  So I start up again and resume watching on TV, and I’m hearing about hybrid golf clubs.  Am I getting old or has the age of specialization reached this far into the traditional world of golf?  Or was the world of golf not all that traditional to begin with other than at Bushwood?

Hey, my clubs include a driver with three and five woods, irons from three through pitching wedge and a putter.  What more could I need?  Well I never did use my three iron for two reasons: I didn’t think I could do better with it than I could with my five wood, and I hit my five wood pretty well.

Like a lot of players, the lower the number on my iron, the harder it is to strike it well.  Unless I get a perfect swing, infrequent though not impossible, I’m not going to get good results.  But I’m not sure I ever would have thought to turn my creativity into designing a club to make up for my imperfections, so it’s a good thing somebody else has.

But when we talk hybrid here, I guess it’s like hybrid vehicles, where the idea is to merge the characteristics of two or more means of motive power to produce vehilces that will go farther on the same amount or less energy.  What we have here is a way to combine the best characteristics of irons with the best characteristics of fairway woods.  Unlike an iron, a hybrid club face, being somewhat hollow,  can deform when it strikes the golf ball, then instantly it seeks to regain its shape, and that adds to the force applied to the ball.  Also hybrids are closer to irons in terms of their length, which means a player would use an iron-like swing, as opposed to setting up further away like one would with a wood.

There are even different designs between club manufacturers.  Some look more like an iron, some look more like a wood, although the club head is not as deep as a wood.  

Most hybrids will cause a higher trajectory than a similar wood and impart more backspi.  This is great for long approach shots, because the player may feel more confident to try to land the ball on the green.  Previously he player may have tried to land the ball short of the green and roll up or and on and worry about rolling off.

Whatever the reason, these clubs are hot sellers.  A report done in 2007 by the Darrell Survey Company showed that at least 65% of the PGA Tour players use at least one hybrid, and 80% of the Champions Tour players (that’s the older guys) use at least one, some more than one.

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How Do I Decide Which Clubs to Buy?

This is a huge question, isn’t it?  It’s kind of like which car should I buy.  The point is to get from point A to point B, or in this case get the ball from tee to cup.

The clubs have to be affordable, but that means something different to me than it would to Donald Trump. Do I really think that the more I spend the better the clubs?  How much money am I willing to spend (or as in the case of some of us, how much will she let me spend)?  They have to be reliable, because I can’t fix them, and I really don’t want to pay somebody else to fix them. Do I need it to be custom-made or do I need to get it fitted to me?  Am I average height?  If so, I probably don’t need custom made clubs, but if the difference in price between custom made or fitted clubs is small, I might consider that.

Maybe the first step is to accurately evaluate my golfing ability and why I play.  If I rarely break 100, or only play occasionally for fun, do I really want to spend more than (fill in the blank)?  Am I so concerned with impressing the people I play with that it is important to me that my clubs, bag, shirt and cap have the name of a big time golf manufacturer, like Callaway,  PING, Taylor Made or Titleist on it?  What do I need to know?  How well do I swing?  How well do I strike the ball?  Do I need super flexible shafts?  Can I do as well with a set of clones, or do I have to have the real thing?

You’ve got to know your swing.  Years ago the big thing was graphite shafts; they’re not so new anymore.  But the big thing was that they flex more than metal shafts, allowing me to whip that club head into the ball.  That’s fine if my hands are where they are supposed to be – but if my hands are leading or trailing where they should be I could find myself out of bounds to either side.  What’s better, a long drive that’s in the rough or worse, or a shorter straighter drive that stays in the fairway?  If I can’t control graphite shafts I should use metal ones.  Less flex also means less twist, so I should have a better chance of getting the club face square to the ball.

Another characteristic of clubs is the offset, meaning the amount the club face sits back from the hosel and shaft.  If you’re not a good ball striker you want offset. You need offset.

Some of the golf publications have buyers guides; you would do well to look at them.  As stated on the GOLF.com web site, which Golf Magazine owns and runs, manufacturers make different product lines based on the ability of their “target markets”.  High handicap players, into which category most of us fall, are usually concerned with the capability of the clubs to forgive us our trangressions.  Low handicappers are often more interested in the ability of their clubs to maximize their strengths.  Buyers guides are often broken down by manufacturer, player type or club type.  And mostly only the top club makers are included.  (Even employees of Golf Magazine only have so much time.)  I wonder why they don’t evaluate the brands that can be found in the sports department at WalMart?  Chuckle.

Seems like it could be an awful lot of work to figure this out.  A recent poll indicated that only 19% of golfers have a driver that is four or more years old, so the research just might be worth it. Another thing to consider of course, is the reason that golfers buy new clubs.  Did the clubs I inherited from Uncle John do the job well enough, even if he bought them in 1975, or do I think that the latest and greatest are going to turn me into Kenny Perry or Jim Furyk?

Maybe I just got tired of them and want some new ones.  That’s OK too, as long as she agrees.

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Stuff to Consider Wearing While Playing Golf

Remember those occasions when you found yourself playing golf on a very cool morning (or afternoon), shivering because you didn’t have heavier clothes on, or wishing you had worn more or heavier clothes?  Well, Mizuno Corporation, maker of sportswear and sports equipment, has been looking for people like you.

According to Golf.com, Mizuno has been among the pioneers in the area of temperature-control fabrics.  Working with the Japanese Olympic teams, they have developed clothing that will keep you warmer when it gets wet.  The theory is that you’ll be able to play those early morning rounds without multiple layers of clothes.  And we all know that those layers restrict your the freedom of movement.  So you swing your way through the mist, dew and still present sprinkler residue and still be warm enough.  PING has trademarked what it calls “dry fiber dynamics” producing a line of golf shirts that soak up your body heat and release it later as you cool off.

And what about the shoes?  Waterproof golf shoes were perfected by FootJoy in 1989, which made them hugely popular big sellers.  As the move toward more sneaker-like footwear has invaded the once-formal golf world, the inflexibilty of those waterproof jobs made golfers think twice.  Addidas Golf has combined the best of both worlds with a new product.  Their Tour 360 Sport is a sneaker-like shoe that combines a urethane shield around the bottom half to protect you against dew and the as yet unevaporated sprinkler moisture with the mesh upper half that provides the flexibility and breathability that many golfers are looking for.  Now you can stay dry and look good while doing it.  Unless you go slogging through puddles or try to play too may underwater lies.

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What kind of golf balls should I buy?

 

Does how a golf ball is made make a difference to you if you’re a weekend or occasional hacker? Yes, says TaylorMade’s Dan Snell, senior director of R&D, although not with a driver off the tee.  He says the difference will be with short irons, imparting backspin.  As with most companies that produce golf balls, there are several models, each constructed to perform differently. 

Wikipedia says that there are essentially two categories of golf balls, those for the recreational golfer and those for the advanced golfer.  The better choices for most recreational golfers are made in two layers with a firm cover and a softer core.  The better choices for advanced golfers are made in three or more layers. 

Among the considerations for purchasing recreational balls with a Surlyn cover are durability and price, as they are usually the least expensive.  If you’re a beginner or a long time occasional player who has not had time or the ability to develop a consistently good swing, you’re likely to cut any other kind of a cover with the edge of your irons.  Besides, if you’re like me, I tended to lose quite a few. 

The more advanced player, having developed enough consistency to keep the ball in play and not cut it while swinging, a softer cover allows the ball to be compressed into the face of the golf club, thereby putting more backspin on the shot. Backspin is important for approach shots and pitch shots.  If you can put backspin on your ball consistently, you’re likely to feel more confident about trying to land your ball on the green and stay on it.  These balls are available with firmer cores, allowing the ball to respond more explosively from the club face.  There are many combinations of softer covers and firmer cores, so if you get to the place where it makes a difference to you, you can use the testing method suggested by Dan Snell.

He says you should take several sleeves of balls, mixing the makers and models, go to a course and play nine holes.  Take only your short irons and wedges.  Play every hole starting from the 100 yard marker.  Play each sleeve and keep track of the results of your shots.  He says that by the time you finish, you should be able to tell the differences between the makes and models and make an informed decision.  If you can’t tell the difference, he says you should buy and play the cheapest ball you can find. 

What about second-hand golf balls?  Well, if you’re prone to slicing or hooking your shots into the woods, swamps, swimming pools or whatever else surrounds the courses you play, or if water hazards intimidate you and act like magnets for your ball, then you might consider them.  They are much more affordable.  When I bought them I would try to choose the ones with the best logos on them regardless of the brand.  Even as I developed a more consistent swing, I found that I was intimidated by certain water hazards, so I would use second hand balls for those shots.  I called them “water balls”.  I also developed a technique to overcome that intimidation, but that’s another story. 

I have a friend, a very good golfer, who loses very few balls and always goes home with more balls than he showed up with.  He has an amazing ability (maybe it’s a gift?) to find lost golf balls.  Some have been lost for a long time.  You might want to be careful about using those balls that were in Uncle Joe’s attic for years, though, because the older a ball gets the more compression it loses from its core, and it will cost you distance.  Which may or may not make a difference to you – and maybe makes the difference with whether you play or not. 

But please – play and enjoy! 

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Did you know this about Annika Sorenstam?

Annika Sorenstam will be a mother soon!  Annika, who retired from competitive golf after last season, got married to Mike McGee shortly after her retirement.  Mr. McGee’s father Jerry was a PGA Tour golfer.  The baby is due in the fall. 

Annika was recognized as a superior athlete when she was a child, ranked nationally in Sweden in tennis and soccer, and skiing.  She took up golf at the age of 12. A shy child, she would deliberately miss putts to avoid winning tournaments, since the winner was expected to give a victory speech.  That practice stopped when coaches noticed the trend and expanded the speeches to include the runner-up. 

She joined the LPGA in 1994 and began winning everything in sight. Over the next fourteen years she won more than 22 million dollars.  Much of her success came early, and she achieved most of her stated goals by the year 2000.  This caused her to have to refocus and set new goals.  She also became recognized as one of the few athletes in the world to be recognized by their first name only, joining Tiger, Michael, Kobe, and Shaq among others.  She got married in 1997 to David Esch, whom she met when she was a rookie on the tour and he was working for Ping. 

During the second half of her career, as she looked ahead to life after the Tour, she developed interests that have allowed her to meld the things she loves doing.  She’s into golf, of course, and this has led her to open her own golf academy, but she’s also into fitness, cooking and charitable work.  It would not be hard to speculate that the interest in fitness came as a result of spine problems in her neck, being treated for bulging and ruptured discs. She established the ANNIKA Foundation, which among other things, set up, with American Junior Golf Association, the ANNIKA Invitational.  This tournament is used to bring 60 of the top internationally ranked female golfers together to compete against each other.  During the event these young golfers are introduced into the possibility of playing professional or collegiate golf and the external facets of those choices.  Enrolling in a cooking school has interested her, and she took part in cooking demos at LPGA events.  She has even worked some eight hour shifts in the kitchen the Lake Nona Country Club, in the Orlando area. 

She got divorced in 2005 from David Esch. 

At the conclusion of her tour career Sorenstam had won 90 international tournaments, surpassing Kathy Whitworth’s record of 88 tour victories.  72 of the wins came on the LPGA Tour. She was named Player of the Year eight times and won the Vare Trophy six times.  The Vare Trophy is an LPGA award for the lowest average score for a season. 

She has challenged Tiger Woods to a one-on-one showdown.  She put down some conditions, but speculated that the televised event would be good for golf and would be for a charitable cause. Tiger’s answer is still awaited.  

She recently announced the introduction of a new perfume, ANNIKA by Annika Sorenstam.  Odd choice, don’t you think? 

Annika, congratulations on your marriage and pending motherhood.  Fans of golf will miss watching you play.

 References: Wikipedia, Golf Magazine, GolfWeek, Golf Digest

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A Three Way Showdown: golf, environmentalism and the economy

 

I’m reluctant to mention politics here, but if you’re paying attention to life, you know we’re facing some interesting times these days. I’ve been thinking about the reportedly growing interest in things “green”. Green this, green that, green cars?  Car companies orchestrating marketing plans based upon their perception that the public wants smaller cars that will provide a smaller “carbon footprint”?  

What about the economic effects of golf?  Is golf too expensive for the average person?  Couldn’t all that land be put to more productive use?  If company sponsors were not putting up all that prize money, wouldn’t their products cost less thereby benefiting all? 

How have all these views affected government?  Are these environmentalists and/or economists actually pursuing these things to benefit mankind?  Could some of them be like the killjoy at the party, determined not to have a good time and that no one else, including golfers,  should either?  Who actually benefits by golf courses going out of business? 

I think that maybe the golf world has been ahead of the rest of the world.  I have experienced more electric golf carts than propane ones.  Where can you find greener surroundings than on a golf course?  Golf course maintenance requires lots of water, which we’re being pressured to conserve.  It requires fertilizer, good for the grass but undoubtedly detrimental to birds, the water table, etc.  

Information, in general, has been growing exponentially over the last 50 years or so.  Discoveries are being made every day that find that practices and products of years past may have had, or in some cases definitely have had, negative impact on the environment.  I had a buddy that died of leukemia in 1984, at age twenty-nine, who was born and raised in Woburn, Massachusetts.  Woburn used to be known for its tanneries, where animal hides were treated with chemicals and turned into leather.  In the old days the spent chemicals were put into storage drums and buried around town which affected the water in the city’s water supply.  That story was told in the book “A Civil Action” by Jonathan Harr and later made into a movie with John Travolta.  Surely there have been other such instances around the country and the world, but what has happened since? Doesn’t society learn from and adapt to things like this? 

John Barton’s article in the May 2008 issue Golf Digest was about a three-day meeting at  Pebble Beach that explored the possible ways to make golf more eco-friendly.  He did not mention who initiated the meeting, but he did discuss the reluctance of golf community representatives to attend. Paul Parker, who at the time was executive vice president of the Center for Resource Management based in Denver, indicated that the golf community felt it was going to be attacked, and that the environmentalists, known for their criticism of golf, didn’t understand golf. (Ain’t that always the way?)  

Ron Kasprike wrote an article for Golf Digest back in 2003 in which he talked about the effects that the “sluggish economy” were having on country club membership and finances.  This before the bottom fell out in November 2008!  His research uncovered that many clubs were drastically reducing joining fees and offering incentives.  He quotes Jim Koppenhaver, whose company keeps track of the private clubs and their members, as saying that fourteen percent of U.S. golfers belong to private clubs, but that number is dwindling. 

Bradley Klein of GolfWeek has written an article that looks at golf and the economy from all sides.  He says that it is a hard thing to get a handle on, since many of the people he talked to put their own favorable slant on things. 

What does it all mean?  Well, until the course I play the most closes or becomes patchy, weedy and dried out it probably won’t affect me.  I’m already a discount golfer, unlikely to join a private club anytime soon.  I’ll just go enjoy myself and try to improve every time out.  As I suspect you will too. 

Keep’em in the well watered and fertilized fairway!

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LPGA News and Commentary, April 17, 2009

 

In August 2008, the LPGA issued a policy that would require all players participating in LPGA events for two years to demonstrate the ability to hold conversations in English. According to the policy, the inability to demonstrate proficiency would result in suspension from the tour. 

This policy is a little hard to understand. Certainly the LPGA wants and needs publicity, and one of the ways they get it is by having the winners and contenders at events interviewed by members of the media.  The inability to hold a conversation in English would then require a translator, which has been happening for years.  Are translators so expensive that the LPGA cannot afford to have them available?  Perhaps they are.  Perhaps it is thought that the personality of a golfer is lost coming through a translator.  Are golfers incapable of learning English over a two-year period?  Are English lessons so prohibitively expensive that the would-be participants would find them out-of-reach?  Would it help if the LPGA paid for English lessons? 

At any rate, the announcement was met with a storm of negative criticism from fans, media and sponsors. (Of course, if Mizuno sponsored a Japanese woman that was prohibited from playing in a televised event, then the Mizuno name would not be seen plastered across her golf bag, her hat if she wears one, and her golf shirt.)  The LPGA dropped the policy after two weeks of such onslaught, and announced that it may reissue the policy after eliminating the suspension penalty. 

 

Leland Yee

So, eight months later, the AP reported that the California Senate passed a bill that would make it illegal to require event participants to speak English unless it is a “business necessity”.  Leland Yee (D), State Senator from San Francisco, says the LPGA’s proposal is discriminatory and insulting to women, minorities and immigrants.  It could also prevent the best golfers from playing, and though this was among the reasons listed by Leland Yee, it was unlikely that it was among the top reasons. 

 

And the policy has not been reissued as far as I know. 

References: Wikipedia, AP, Golf.com

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More about Angel Cabrera, 2009 Masters Tournament champion

 

Angel Cabrera, the first Argentine winner of the Masters Tournament last week, returned to his home to a crowd that welcomed him and cheered as he displayed his new green jacket. 

According to Golf.com, his background in golf started at age 10 as a caddy at the Cordoba Golf Club, leading to his first round with borrowed clubs when he was fifteen.  Eduardo Romero, a successful professional himself, mentored Angel and sponsored him as he learned to play, until he turned pro at age 20.

Mr. Cabrera qualified to be a professional at the European Tour Qualifying School on his fourth attempt in 1996, and he has amassed 39 wins as a professional.  Before the Masters he was ranked 69th on the tour, making him the lowest ranked golfer ever to win the event at the Augusta National Golf Club.

Angel previous major win was in 2007, his first year on the PGA Tour, the U.S. Open at Oakmont, near Pittsburgh, where he beat Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk by one stroke.  At that event he was the atop the leaderboard after two rounds, but he had trouble on that day; he shot six over par and finished four strokes behind the leader. It would be easy to imagine that he would be discouraged, but evidently he did not let it overwhelm him and finished the final round at one under par.  He is the first Argentine to win the U.S, Open. Only one other Argentine has ever won a major, that being Roberto de Vincenzo, who took the British Open in 1967, two years before Angel was born, and then in 1968 was disqualified for a playoff to win the Masters when he signed an incorrect scorecard.

Mr. Cabrera’s Masters win was consistent with his Oakmont win, in that he demonstrated his positive attitude and refused to let his circumstances get the better of him.  Tied for the lead with Kenny Perry when he teed off Sunday, he fell two strokes behind while Phil Mickelson and Tiger scrambled to overtake the leaders.  He kept his concentration and interacted with the gallery, which made the CBS commentators describe him as “popular”. Still two shots back as he finished the sixteenth hole, he showed what a clutch golfer he can be.  Then he pulled into a tie at the eighteenth, finished one under for the day, and was part of a dramatic three way playoff  with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell.  On the first extra hole he survived a disastrous tee shot into the woods. His second shot bounced off two trees, the second bounce a fortunate one, as his golf ball ended up in the middle of the fairway with a clear path to the green. Chad Campbell did not survive the first extra hole when he missed a makeable six foot putt for par.  Angel made par on the next hole and sank his putt as Perry looked on, unable to win.

So this was Mr. Cabrera’s second major win.  He is only the second non-American ever to have won both the Masters and the U.S. Open; Gary Player was the other.  He has won three times on the European Tour and has vowed to win at least three more majors.

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The Downhill Lie: A Hacker’s Return to a Ruinous Sport by Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen a sense of humor that makes this book easy and fun reading. As one might tell from the title, this is a personal record of the author’s introduction to golf, his struggle to master it, no, not master exactly, but come to terms with it. He relates how his golf-loving father got him involved, his high school golf experiences with buddies, at his alma mater, and his evaluation of his emotional capability to play golf. If you consider yourself to be a fun loving hacker who plays golf for fun and the fellowship of like minded friends, this book is for you.

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