As your host, I invite you to discuss this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Thanks for watching Mel’s 2 Minute Miracles – Weight Shift.
There are many golfers who struggle with shifting the weight correctly from the back foot at the top of the backswing to the front foot on the follow-through.
Here are two simple drills that will help.
Swing a club without balls and make a conscious effort to finish the swing like you see the pros do on TV every weekend. Hold that pose for a few seconds and then do it again. Each day swing the club for about five to ten minutes. As you get more comfortable with this finish, start swinging a little harder until you are singing at the same speed as your golf course swing, holding that perfect finish every time.
Take a golf ball in your rear hand. Put your lead arm behind your back and toss the ball underhand as far as you can. Because we rew up as kids throwing a ball, this will be a nice fluid motion with your rear arm now extended towards the taret.
Phil Leaves Butch Harmon in a real classy way – Check this out!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Phil Mickelson is a class act. No breaking up with his coach via email or text. He got on a plane, flew to Las Vegas, and met with Butch Harmon in person. This is the way you handle things in life, people! Butch has put in many, many hours with Phil, and Phil showed his respect to the business’s best coach! Thanks to Tim Rosaforte for Golf Digest for this breaking story!
Butch Harmon could sense it coming. He’d been there with Greg Norman and Tiger Woods after taking them to No. 1, and now he was there with Phil Mickelson. It’s that moment when an instructor and a player just aren’t communicating the way they used to and the end is inevitable.
So when Phil Mickelson flew to Las Vegas last week and met Harmon for breakfast at Rio Secco, there weren’t any surprises. The highs of the 2010 Masters victory and that incredible, unforeseen British Open win in 2013, not to mention walking off arm-in-arm after winning the Players in 2007, were now history. At 45, Mickelson wanted to make some more history, so it was time to make a change.
“I COMPLETELY AGREED THAT SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO HEAR THINGS A DIFFERENT WAY, GET A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON THINGS,”
“He flew up on his plane last week to sit down and talk,” Harmon said when I reached him Wednesday night. “We talked for about two hours. I completely agreed that sometimes you need to hear things a different way, get a different perspective on things. He’s been frustrated the last two years. I thought it was a good idea that he would do this. He needs to hear things differently that maybe get him rejuvenated and get him back to what we all know he can be.”
This was not going to end bitterly, the way Harmon and Woods ended. Those two have hardly talked since 2002. Mickelson was equally as high road as Harmon, saying the teacher deserved to be told face to face.
“I respect him as a person and as a teacher and as a friend, and just wanted to talk to him in person about it,” Mickelson said. “It’s not something you do over the phone. He’s been good to me long before we ever started working together. That stuff is never easy, but it’s what he deserves.”
Rich Beem helps Poulter try to qualify for the Ryder Cup Team!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I’m not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing!
On the one hand, Ian Poulter is a feisty Ryder Cup competitor who seems to raise his game on Ryder Cup week and would be a formidable opponent for the European team. On the other hand, Poulter has been in poor form recently, and if he does not make the team but makes it as a captain’s pick, he would be the weakest link on the team. A good thing for the US, looking for an elusive victory!
Less than a year out from the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, the United States nearly avoided having to worry about the eye-bulging stares of Ian Poulter.
Not unlike the scheduling snafu that precipitated Martin Kaymer’s loss of PGA Tour status for the 2015-16 season, Poulter found out on Monday, Oct. 19 that he had fallen outside of the Official World Golf Ranking’s top-50 for the first time since September 2006.
No big deal, right? Wrong.
Like many global stars of the game, Poulter holds membership on both the PGA and European Tours and is forced to set a schedule that requires he play in 15 PGA Tour-sanctioned events and 13 European Tour-sanctioned events. Spending the majority of his time stateside, Poulter played in 19 PGA Tour events and, prior to this week, 12 European Tour events. The requirements have their advantages and disadvantages as major championships and World Golf Championships are co-sanctioned events, thus limiting the number of starts players need to make on each Tour — four majors and four WGCs already mark off eight events on each circuit.
However, to qualify for each WGC including the HSBC Champions, which will be contested Nov. 4-8, one needs to fall into a certain category of winners, be a top finisher in an end-of-season series (FedEx Cup, Race to Dubai) or rank in the top-50 of the OWGR. With Poulter outside the top-50 and just 12 events to his credit on the European Tour, the Englishman was thrust into scramble mode, not only to maintain his European Tour card, but also to be eligible for the 2016 Ryder Cup.
10 Ways To Behave Poorly at a PGA Event – I hate #3 and #6!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Yes, this is an etiquette sheet for what-not-to-do-at-a-PGA-Tour-event.
Many of you wouldn’t be caught dead, performing most of these behaviors. I hope you do not see yourself in #3 or #6?
Check out this article by Ben Alberstadt for golfwrx.com, and see the video where Webb Simpson’s trophy presentation was interrupted by a bird call!
“Hello, sir. Are you participating in the tournament today?” If the answer to that question is no, you have NO business wearing your golf shoes at a PGA Tour event.
Period.
Do the spike-wearers also lace up their cleats when they head to football and baseball games?
And whatever material advantage one gains in terms of on-course traction is surely outweighed by the ridiculousness quotient.
Note: Caddies don’t wear golf shoes, and they walk the course with 50-plus pound bags strapped to their back. Thus, you don’t need to either.
Do you know this guy/these guys (they usually travel in packs)? Booming alcohol voice, douchily attired, clutching three-plus empty plastic beer cups in one hand and a (lit or unlit) cigar in the other?
And whether the product of beer-induced tunnel vision, total lack of concern, or general ignorance, the beer-and-cigar guy (and his beer-and-cigar buddies) is always spouting off with little regard for those around him.
He’ll be happy to add a few colorful words to your child’s vocabulary and will offer unrestrained praise for the assets of the fairer sex he spots in the gallery.
You’d like to think that even repeat “Baba Booey-ers” are annoyed when they hear the signature exclamation of golf fan idiocy bellowed as a Tour pro tees off.
If you find yourself compelled to belt out the above or any other ridiculous exclamation for that most-rewarding knowledge that you “got on television,” please don’t.
It’s a race to the bottom with these folks, and the upcoming season will bring with it new moronic vocalization.
Look, I understand adults have the right to ask pros for autographs. Maybe you have a sports memorabilia business, want to make a quick buck on eBay, or are merely looking to proudly display a signed Phil Mickelson 8-by-10 in your office.
All of that is fine. Still, children must have first priority in the hunter for Tour pros’ Sharpie scribbles.
Why?
Remember being a kid? Do you not remember the deities that professional athletes were to you? Remember the overwhelming sentimental value of an autograph?
10 Ways To Behave Poorly at a PGA Event – I hate #3 and #6!
Autographs are most important to children, and children’s enjoyment of golf is most important to the game’s future.
Don’t be one of those guys trampling children to get Adam Scott’s autograph.
Have you seen this guy (and it’s usually a guy)? He posts up at a hole and shares his expansive knowledge of the game of golf and the players on the PGA Tour with anyone who will listen. As he’s often attending the tournament alone, he has no choice but to scatter his pearls of wisdom before strangers.
In addition to providing color commentary (“Dufner’s wife is hot”…” He has great hands. Shouldn’t have any trouble with this pitch”), he’ll share his green reads with anyone in his proximity.
He’s honed the reads, of course, from camping out at the same green all day.
Jason Day’s Story is an Inspirational one for sure!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
If you love golf, and you want to be a champion, or if you have a child who wants to be a champion, watch this video.
The story of Jason Day’s journey, the hardships that he faced and overcame, are an inspiration to all who watch it. Not only is he a nice guy, but he also deserves every ounce of praise he gets. Nothing was given to him on a silver platter, he earned it!
Jason Day’s journey to the top of the golf world is unlike anyone else’s. From humble beginnings in Australia, Jason overcame adversity to find his path through hard work and dedication. Through exclusive, behind-the-scenes access Jason’s story is shared with the world for the first time here. We’re proud to call Jason a member of Team RBC.
Evian Resort Golf Club home to the LPGA’s new Major!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Congratulations to Lydia Ko, who became the youngest female player to win a Major Championship.
The Evian Championship started out as the Evian Masters in 1994 and was considered a major by the Ladies European Tour. It became a co-sanctioned event with the LPGA Tour in 2000. It has now come full circle and, in 2013, was considered a Major Championship by the LPGA Tour and had the second-highest purse (next to the US Women’s Open.) in women’s golf!
The Evian Championship – Seduced… by a Singularly Charming Golf Course
The championship course was resplendent; the fairways were bathed in abundant Alpine sunshine, and the clear blue skies set a sparkling stage for the 2015 Evian Championship.
Hole #2 at Evian, a breathtaking downhill par 3
Watching the coverage of this tournament, it quickly becomes clear that the golf course at Evian Resort Golf Club has a special place in the players’ hearts.
They speak about in interviews and on social media. The sublime lakeside location, with its majestic mountainous backdrop, is certainly part of it, but the allure of this golf course goes beyond the obvious beauty of the site. The Evian Resort Golf Course… I would venture to say… has a uniquely seductive personality.
Pink flagsticks complement the lush emerald greens of the Evian Resort Golf Course.
Golf courses, like people, have personalities. Some are affable and easy-going, while others are distant and demanding.
Some quiet and calm, others open and exuberant. We who play the game know this, and Evian’s personality, I can happily confirm, is delightful.
We’d been looking forward to playing at Evian for years, and when our closest friends moved to the French Alpes… just a couple of towns away… we knew the time was right. So we made our way there this summer, and on a sun-drenched day in early July we experienced firsthand the singular, seductive charm of Evian Resort Golf Course.
Evian Resort.
The seduction began well before we approached the first tee. We’d booked a twilight tee time, but arrived early in the afternoon, giving us time to have lunch, look around, and spend some time on the practice range.
7 Ways to Introduce Your Kids to this Great Game of Golf!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
My father introduced me to the game of golf when I was 16.
I had played a lot of sports at school, and when he joined a local Country Club, I went along to go to the pool. No intentions of playing golf. But this club allowed juniors to play after all the members had teed off. So my cousin and I went out to play. I had no idea how to hold or swing the golf club, but being a fairly good athlete, I did manage to play the first 3 holes in even par! I then made 6’s and 7’s the rest of the 9, but that did not matter. I was going to play this great game of golf!
Teeing off from the correct yardage makes a HUGE difference!
Sam Weinman of Golf Digest brings you 7 ways to introduce your kids to the game in a way that they will be asking, “When can we go and play golf again?” We need to grow this game through our kids. Get them to participate in a group lesson program. Enter them in some fun three-hole tournaments. They will not only learn to love the game but learn some life lessons along the way!
Introduce your kids to the game without losing your mind (or your club membership)
If you’re like me, you probably found yourself playing less golf when you got married and even less golf when you had kids. But I’m here to offer hope. Playing golf with your kids is like our version of the Champions Tour — a second chance right around the time you thought your best golf was behind you. No doubt, golf with your kids can be complicated (my last round involved a frustrated 7-year-old heaving his 8-iron into a dense patch of poison ivy) but I’ve also found it has led to some of my most rewarding times on the course. What follows is one father’s personal and highly subjective guide.
1. Pick the right hours
I probably don’t need to tell you this, but this is not a Sunday morning at 8 a.m. activity. Or at least not if you plan to go to a golf course that includes other humans. (If you happen to have your own private golf course at your disposal, I encourage you to do what you want. I also have reason to believe you and I can become best friends. I’ll follow up). Restricting family golf time to evening hours is not only advised out of consideration for your fellow golfers, but also for your own sanity. Trust me, there’s nothing fun about watching your kid hit eight consecutive shots in the bunker while some crankasaurus stands with his hands on his hips in the fairway. I’m a firm believer that kids need to have a general respect for pace of play even at a young age, but you’re setting yourself up for disaster if you don’t allow for the occasional delay.
2. Let them get excited about new stuff
Look, I spend as much time as any parent trying to push against my kids’ fixation with material possessions. It’s a problem, particularly on an editor’s salary. But face it, part of the fun of golf for kids is all the stuff that comes with it. I’m not advocating you buy them a brand new set of Callaways. But even the littlest things make a difference — ball markers, tees, the occasional sleeve of balls. This should get you through the first month or so of their golf careers. Then they’ll see their first Nike commercial and you’re screwed.
3. Embrace the golf cart
This is another one of those philosophical compromises you need to make when it comes to golf with kids. As a golfer, you may be a devout walker because you feel like that’s the way the game should be played and because you welcome the exercise. But a golf cart to kids is like an amusement ride. It’s fun, it’s conducive for some meaningful exchanges every now and then, and it cuts into the fatigue factor that is inevitable when you’re hoofing it carrying your own bag. I’m not saying you should take a cart every time you play with your kids. But this is one area where your inner golf snob needs to keep his trap shut.
Is Jordan Spieth the Best Putter in the World Ever?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
As an older professional golfer… ahem… in my 70’s, I always consider Bobby Locke, Ben Crenshaw, and Tiger Woods to be the best putters in the history of the game.
News item: Ian Poulter has just said that Jordan Spieth “may be the best putter ever.”
Wow! This from a player known as being one of today’s best Tour putters and not known for handing out compliments!I love that the feisty English competitor is publicly recognizing the stats held by phenom Jordan Spieth. Spieth leads the Tour in putting average and putts per round, but Poulter is most impressed that Jordan is number one at making putts from 25 feet.It’s cool that the wild-eyed Poulter, who demonstrated extreme determination in putting for wins at 2004, 2008 and 2012 Ryder Cups has weighed in on this oh-so-tough part of the game.Thanks to Marika Washchyshyn for this story for golf.com:
After sinking his final putt to win a three-hole playoff in the fourth round of the 2015 Valspar Championship, Jordan Spieth celebrates.
Ian Poulter, not particularly well known for doling out praise, has given Jordan Spieth the highest of compliments, saying the 22-year-old “may be the best putter ever.”
The 39-year-old Englishman told Reuters that Spieth’s putting is the reason this year’s Masters and U.S. Open champ is finding himself in contention every week.
“Statistically he’s the best putter in the game and he may go down as he best anyone has ever seen,” Poulter said. “If you look at the percentage of putts he holes from 25 feet it’s remarkable. That’s generally the distance you hit it to when you are playing well. It’s an amazing percentage of putts that he holes and we all want that sort of putting stroke.”
There is absolutely no Stinkin’ Thinkin’ when you are Puttin’
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Thinking mechanical thoughts is never a good thing when playing golf, but mechanical thoughts can totally ruin the game when it comes to putting.
My friend and well known putting instructor Glenn Coombes always says, “No Stinkin’ Thinkin””
So here, Dave Marsh for iGolfTV gives us a good tip on distracting the mind for the task at hand and allowing your natural instinct to take over. Try this, I think you’ll like it!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Colored golf balls are nothing new, but we are normally used to yellow, pink, orange, and even clear.
But Nike put out their black ball during the FBR Open, and their phones lit up, asking where consumers could get this unusual ball. Here is the story by USAToday.com‘s Jerry Potter.
What started out as a simple promotion for a new product has created a buzz in the golf world and stir in the Nike headquarters in Oregon.
The New ball from Nike is garnering more attention than the company expected!
None of the four, Stewart Cink, Justin Leonard, K.J. Choi or Rory Sabbatini, came close to a hole-in-one, but they got the effect Nike wanted with the promotion. The hole is similar to an amphitheater, with more than 7,000 mostly rowdy spectators watching. The combination of the odd black ball, the fans and the TV audience had phones ringing at the club during the tournament and at Nike headquarters Monday.Four PGA Tour golfers, all under contract to Nike, agreed to play a black golf ball on the par-3, 162-yard 16th hole at the TPC of Scottsdale, during the FBR Open in Arizona, to call attention to the new Nike Black One ball, which isn’t totally black like the promotional ball.
According to Nike spokesman Dean Stoyer, phone calls were coming in at a rate of 10 per hour.
Customers wanted to know where they could buy the ball.
By Monday afternoon, Nike execs were referring to the ball as the BOB — Black One Black. The original is the Black One, which is white with black markings to distinguish it from other Nike golf balls.
Stoyer said the ball is “difficult to see” should it be hit in the rough, so it was used on the par-3.
Nike’s executives had no anticipation of the response, so the ball’s future is going through a through investigation to see if there is potential. The plan now is to offer The Black One Black in specific stores, giving it as a two-ball pack for anyone who buys a dozen Black One whites.
The ball meets all regulations of the U.S. Golf Association, but golf balls with a different color have not been popular in the marketplace. Orange and yellow balls were sold 25 years ago, and Jerry Pate used an orange ball made by Wilson to win the 1982 Players Championship. He says he would play one again if Titleist, which he represents today, would make one.
“The time was right for this,” said Pate, now a Champions Tour player. “You can only sell so many balls by changing the number of dimples on a ball.”
Do you want your child to love golf – Follow this 8 step guide!
I probably don’t need to tell you this, but this is not a Sunday morning at 8 a.m. activity. Or at least not if you plan to go to a golf course that includes other humans. (If you happen to have your own private golf course at your disposal, I encourage you to do what you want. I also have reason to believe you and I can become best friends. I’ll follow up). Restricting family golf time to evening hours is not only advised out of consideration for your fellow golfers, but also for your own sanity. Trust me, there’s nothing fun about watching your kid hit eight consecutive shots in the bunker while some crankasaurus stands with his hands on his hips in the fairway. I’m a firm believer that kids need to have a general respect for pace of play even at a young age, but you’re setting yourself up for disaster if you don’t allow for the occasional delay.
Look, I spend as much time as any parent trying to push against my kids’ fixation with material possessions. It’s a problem, particularly on an editor’s salary. But face it, part of the fun of golf for kids is all the stuff that comes with it. I’m not advocating you buy them a brand new set of Callaways. But even the littlest things make a difference — ball markers, tees, the occasional sleeve of balls. This should get you through the first month or so of their golf careers. Then they’ll see their first Nike commercial and you’re screwed.
This is another one of those philosophical compromises you need to make when it comes to golf with kids. As a golfer, you may be a devout walker because you feel like that’s the way the game should be played and because you welcome the exercise. But a golf cart to kids is like an amusement ride. It’s fun, it’s conducive for some meaningful exchanges every now and then, and it cuts into the fatigue factor that is inevitable when you’re hoofing it carrying your own bag. I’m not saying you should take a cart every time you play with your kids. But this is one area where your inner golf snob needs to keep his trap shut.
by Marika Washchyshyn
