A case for NOT keeping your head down – Be like Henrik!
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!
One of the biggest myths about the golf swing is, “Keep our head down!” I always like to say, keep your head level. That way, there is no up and down movement to throw off your timing. But some golfers like Henrik Stenson, David Duval, and Anika Sorenstam actually rotate their heads through impact to help them generate more rotation through the ball. Check out this article and then head to the range and give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised!
Not how the head rotates through impact!
We all know that Henrik Stenson is an elite ball-striker.
He proved it again at the BMW International Open in Germany, capturing his 10th European Tour title with a three-shot victory over Darren Fichardt and Thorbjorn Oleson.
Stenson’s prowess with his irons — he hits his 7-iron 195 yards with almost no curve — comes from both natural athleticism and body movements that don’t get in the way of his speed.
“A lot of weekend players hold on to a terrible piece of advice, which is to keep the head still during the swing,” says Golf Digest Best Young Teacher Shaun Webb, who is based at the David Toms 265 Academy in Shreveport, La. “If you lock your head down, it stays that way after the ball is gone and keeps you from rotating your body through the shot. That costs you lots of speed.”
Mental toughness is far more important than good technique!
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 consider Bernhard Langer as one of, if not THE, toughest competitors, mentally, on any tour in the world!
He reminds me of Nikki Lauder (also from Germany), one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers ever. Both of these gentlemen have that unique ability to handle pressure at the highest level and pull out a victory even when the odds are against them! What every golfer can learn from Bernhard is that mental toughness is far more important than having a good putting stroke or putting technique. But, how many amateurs work on their mental toughness? So the next time you go to the course, work on putting your best effort forward no matter how you are striking the ball and don’t allow anything to upset you! Your game will thank you!
It stood to reason that Berhard Langer — he of the multiple bouts of the yips and heavy reliance on the long putter — would pay the stiffest penalty when anchoring was banned for 2016.
Turns out Langer is doing just fine.
The 58-year-old German won his second major of the year at the Senior Players, and punctuated it with his flat stick. Langer rolled in a 12-footer for par on the last hole to hold off Miguel Angel Jimenez and Joe Durant by a shot.
When the rules changed, Langer figured to have to learn to use some alternative grip on a regular length putter. Instead, he simply kept his long putter and style, but moved his left hand off his chest right before taking a stroke. The change is a perfect example of Langer’s cool-headed, analytical style — put the process first!
“The average player gets so lost in the physical stuff. How to hold it and how to stand, that they totally forget the mental part. And the mental part is the most important,” says two-time major champion and short game guru Dave Stockton. “Bernhard’s work ethic is second to none, but what separates him from so many other players is how he approaches problems. When he makes a mistake, he doesn’t get angry. He’s constantly processing so he can learn and figure out a better way to do it.”
Would you change your putting grip mid-round in a 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!
Changing putting grips mid-round is something I certainly have done in my career.
If I have a poor or inconsistent putting round, I will not hesitate to change my grip to get something going. But changing grips continually between short, medium, and long putts is completely different, and Phil Mickelson did it in a Major Championship! He certainly has his reasons, so read on as Matthew Rudy of Golf Digest brings us this interesting article and asks the question, “Would you change your putting grip mid-round in a Major?
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Whatever the reason was for Phil Mickelson’s second-place finish to Henrik Stenson, it wasn’t the putter.
Mickelson one-putted 35 out of 72 holes — second best in the field — and made only four bogies the entire week to go with 19 birdies and an eagle. His final score of 267 would have won every other major in history with the exception of one.
He did introduce an interesting quirk on the back nine Sunday, moving from the claw putting grip — with his lower hand turned sideways on the bottom of the grip — he had used for the entire tournament to that point to a conventional grip. Standing over a mid-length putt on the 16th, he started with a conventional grip and turned his hand around to the claw before pulling the trigger.
Learn the secrets to Henrik Stenson’s pressure-proof swing!
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!
Henrik Stenson has a pressure-proof swing!
This was proven without a shadow of a doubt on Sunday afternoon in the final round of the 2016 British Open Championship. Henrik does a few things in his swing that I have been teaching for a long time now that buck conventional teaching methods. Keeping the lower body stable and moving through the ball with a strong upper torso rotation is Henrik’s secret. Matthew Rudy of Golf Digest brings you insights from the latest phenom’s golf swing!
The Denver Post. 2016 in Troon, Scotland.
You don’t keep your reputation as one of professional golf’s best ball-strikers if you don’t do things to support the claim.
The round of the year!
Henrik Stenson piled up five more birdies to go with the seven he made on Friday, hitting lasers that cut through the 30-mile-per-hour wind at Troon. Stenson has hit 40 out of 51 greens, second most in the tournament, and has made only five bogeys in three rounds–second fewest.
He does it with a swing action that goes against some of the prevailing teaching wisdom, says Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher Brian Manzella, who is based at English Turn Golf & Country Club in New Orleans. “The trend is certainly to teach free hip turn in both directions, and I certainly subscribe to that,” says Manzella. “That usually comes from straightening the right leg in the backswing and straightening the left leg in the downswing. But Henrik Stenson doesn’t do that at all.”
The Best Half Way Houses in the USA – #3 Sounds Fantastic!
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 are like me, you don’t particularly like to eat between 9 holes. It is much more popular in South Africa, Mexico, England, and Europe to stop at the Half Way House for a snack or drink. For the most part, playing in the US, we go right from the 9th green to the 10th tee. But reading through this list of top halfway houses in the USA put together by Matthew Rudy of Golf Digest, I might just change my mind.
The hot dog is the building block. It’s the default order when you’re playing an unfamiliar course. Or when you get to the turn and don’t know what you want.
A base model costs around $3, can be ready in less than a minute. And is a blank slate for toppings and condiments. You can hold it in one hand as you’re walking to the next tee and wolf it down in three or four bites without taking off your glove. And—let’s be honest—even a mediocre one on a grocery-store bun tastes pretty good with a cold beer or an iced tea.
The hot dog does its job.
But the best golf food aspires to do more than just deliver quick calories, carbs and protein between nines. It stands out. It’s almost as much a part of the playing experience as the tee shot on a signature hole or the view from the 18th tee.
You remember it.
We asked more than 2,000 players nationwide—from pros to average hackers—to name their favorite golf-food item. The rules were straightforward. It had to be something on the regular menu at a halfway house or clubhouse in the United States and something you could conceivably eat at the turn. (That means the lovely dry-aged steak dinner at your club doesn’t count.)
The response was overwhelming, with nominees from Hawaii to Maine and all points between. Our voters covered the staples in all shapes, sizes and accessories—from giant custom hot dogs to hand-ground boutique burgers. They also identified clever and unique dishes that are a fundamental part of the history of the course or club where they’re served.
The runaway winner, Olympic Club’s iconic burger dog, checks both boxes with authority.
The quarter-pound offspring of a marriage between a fresh-baked hot-dog bun and a premium, cigar-shape burger, the burger dog is both familiar and new. The ultimate testament to the burger dog’s status? Served for more than 60 years in the same form from the same nondescript stand, the $7.50 sandwich is probably more memorable for a first-time guest than any hole on Olympic Club’s Lake Course—where five U.S. Opens have been played.
You don’t need a membership at an exclusive golf club to enjoy what the best halfway houses have to offer, either. Municipal, daily-fee and resort courses are all represented on our list—from the “Best in L.A.” wings at Griffith Park to the homemade barbecue at Streamsong in Florida and Prairie Lakes in Texas.
And if you prefer your food ahead of your round instead of in the middle, we have a couple of go-to places for you. Coronado’s prime-rib machaca burrito sets the breakfast standard, along with Jefferson Park’s version of the BLT—which includes avocado and a fried egg.
It’s a great time to be a golfer with a few bucks in your pocket and a few minutes before you need to hit your next shot.
The Best Half Way Houses in the USA – #3 Sounds Fantastic!
Will Styer Olympic Club’s burger dog has been served for 60 years from the same original stand.
1. BURGER DOG
Olympic Club, San Francisco
With Hollywood types, some hyperbole is to be expected. The hamburger shaped to fit a hot-dog bun has become a part of the 156-year-old club’s landscape—literally. Originally created by Bill Parrish for his Hot Dog Bills stand outside the club’s Lake Course, the sandwich became so popular with players stepping across the street for a food break that Olympic asked Parrish to move the stand inside the grounds to serve as the halfway house.
Bill’s daughter, Candy, took over the operation in the 1980s. Today, she, her husband, Jack, and her two sons, Max and Grahm, oversee three stands across Olympic’s 45 holes and practice range and cook up roughly 200 burger dogs each day for lucky members and guests. The star of the show hasn’t changed a lick since the beginning: a quarter pound of ground chuck (85 percent lean) formed into an oblong patty, cooked medium rare and topped with cheese, red relish, mustard, dill pickles and onions.
Parrish isn’t possessive of the burger dog’s secrets. The recipe is on the Hot Dog Bills website. And she’ll even sell you a plastic mold to get the torpedo shape just right. “It’s a good grind of meat, a really hot grill and some salt and pepper,” Parrish says. “And the bun? It has to be toasted.”
Getting it up and down from the ball washer by Stan Utley!
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!
Stan Utley is a former PGA Tour player who only won once but had a reputation as having an excellent short game. So when he quit playing on Tour, he decided to teach the short game to both PGA Tour players and amateur golfers. I attended a Seminar put on by Utley in 2015, and I must say I was very impressed. He certainly knows his stuff. In this article plus a video, Stan Utley and Golf Digest will walk you through some tough lies and show you how to get it “up and down from the ball washer!”
Getting it up and down from the ball washer by Stan Utley!
How do you practice your short game?
Most people move from one perfect lie to another and start to find their rhythm after half a dozen or so tries. That’s nice, but how much of your real golf comes in perfect conditions? Even if you’re teeing it up at Augusta National, you’ll run across a variety of less-than-ideal greenside lies. Unless you know how to diagnose the situation and use the club the right way for each shot, you’re going to be hitting and hoping.
To make a point here, I tried out four extreme playing surfaces: pavement, my back-yard pool, the artificial turf at Arizona State’s football practice facility and the desert. Each of these represents a common bad lie you face when you play: hardpan, sloppy ground conditions, super-tight grass and an unmaintained waste area. The techniques I’m using here are the same ones you should use on the course. You’ll see they’re mostly changes in the setup and how you use the bounce on the bottom of the club. If you know how to get the club to interact correctly with the ground, then it’s a matter of picking how far behind the ball to hit. You’ll be able to approach even the toughest short-game shots without fear.—With Matthew Rudy
HARDPAN: STAY TALL AND SKID THROUGH IMPACT
One basic for any short-game shot is keeping your spine straight up and down (viewed face-on) throughout the swing. This helps control where the club hits the ground. That’s important from a firm lie like hardpan—or pavement. On grass, you can fall back on the downswing and sometimes scoop the ball up. But if you fall back on a firm lie, the club will ricochet off the ground, and you’ll skull the shot.
Start with the ball in the center of your stance and your weight favoring your front leg. Keep your head in place during the backswing and turn through the shot without dipping. Use your wrists to throw the clubhead through so you get the bounce skidding just behind the ball. Let the club’s loft do the work of getting the ball up (above).
SOFT LIES: GIVE IT PLENTY OF SPEED AT THE BOTTOM
Sloppy, wet lies can be intimidating because you don’t know what to expect. Will the club get stuck in the muck or come through clean? Out of fear, a lot of players swing too easy, which usually causes you to duff it. From these lies, you should be thinking about playing a standard bunker shot.
Set up with the ball two to three inches in front of center, and unhinge your wrists aggressively on the downswing while keeping your right palm pointed upward—that keeps the bounce on the bottom of the club pointed down. If you let your wrists roll over and turn the clubface down, you’ll dig the leading edge into the ground and lose all your speed. Just unhinge your wrists and give it some speed, as if you were trying to skip a rock all the way across a pond.
Timeless Tips from the Greatest Player who ever Lived!
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!
What better way to learn the game than from the person regarded as the greatest player who ever lived. I recently read that even the unflappable Ben Hogan was in awe of Jack! These are golf tips that have stood the test of time, and if they come from Jack, they also certainly helped his game. Read and take note! Thanks to Matthew Rudy and Golf Digest for sharing such valuable material!
Jack Nicklaus has been offering his insights to Golf Digest readers since the 1960’s. To celebrate his birthday we’ve compiled some of the 18-time major champion’s best tips from over the years – on everything from fundamentals to driving strategy.
When conditions deteriorate, the tendency is to rush your routine and your swing. That gets you out of sequence. Don’t rush, and make sure all of the elements of your swing have time to happen.
Instead of consciously trying to turn your shoulders, let the club flow back as far as your body will allow. If you force it, you’ll tend to lose your grip at the top.
With big-headed drivers, the tendency is to tee it high to launch it. But don’t be afraid to tee it lower to produce a more penetrating shot with more roll.
This is Extreme Coaching – Can you handle an 8 Hour Lesson?
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!
Some amazing people working in the industry are taking extreme coaching to a whole new level!
If you have the money and the time, this is a form of biomechanics that is nothing short of amazing! I attended a Biomechanics Certification Course at Pebble Beach under the tutelage of Mike Adams in January of this year and saw this amazing machine in action. After using the one at Pebble, we were told that Webb Simpson immediately bought one and had it installed in his home. Thanks to Matthew Rudy for this fascinating piece!
Walk on most practice tees today and the random lesson being given won’t look much different from one you might have seen in 1970 or 1990. The teacher might be using a camera—or an iPhone—to record some video, but other than that, the paradigm is remarkably similar to how players took lessons when they were swinging woods that were actually made of wood.
Shaun Webb is giving Robert Hall a different kind of lesson.
Webb, the director of instruction at the David Toms Academy 265 in Shreveport, La., certainly spends time watching Hall stripe balls onto the tour-caliber 400-yard range. But the twosome will spend just as much time in a squat building on the other side of the property. Here, they can utilize two pieces of technology that are redefining the learning experience: a golf robot and a three-dimensional motion-capture system.
How good could you get with unlimited resources? There’s a growing contingent of teachers and students attempting to hack the learning process in just this manner.
Forget the hourlong, once-a-month tuneup. Hall is getting an “extreme lesson.”
This is Extreme Coaching – Can you handle an 8 Hour Lesson?
Hall, 59, has been mostly self-taught since age 9. Sick of his plateaued game, the 10-handicapper decided to commit to a comprehensive lesson program. When he saw a Golf Channel telecast highlighting the David Toms academy as one of a handful of places in North America to have a $150,000 RoboGolfPro, he called to book a full day of lessons. Then the industrial-equipment executive flew his plane to Shreveport.
“Once I got there, it took about 10 shots for me to know that I’d made the right decision,” Halls says. “I had never had a lesson with any kind of technology. It proved to me that I’ll get better faster if I commit to the building of the foundation. It gives you hope that you can get better. That’s what gets you out of bed every day.”
The RoboGolfPro looks like an automated paint sprayer working the line at a Chevrolet plant—a sort of thickset Iron Byron.
A golfer will stand across from the machine and hold a shortened club that extends from its hinged mechanical arm. A teacher can then program any kind of swing pattern and set it for any speed—from slow-motion to PGA Tour-quick. The student must hold on and move in response to the club’s motion. If you want a sense for what Ben Hogan’s downswing felt like, this is the only way.
Hall was intrigued, but it was the GEARS 3-D motion-capture system that led to his quickest initial transformation. To get started, Hall had to dress in a suit covered with 26 sensors and hit shots before an array of eight high-speed cameras. This created an animated, three-dimensional rendering of Hall and his swing on a large screen, offering him a detailed look from any conceivable angle.
With the aid of this rendering, Webb helped Hall change his hip tilt and improve what had been a too-steep attack angle.
“My ball flight improved immediately,” Hall said after that first three-hour session.
“When you can use something like 3-D or biofeedback, it gives the player more than just words,” says Webb, who works for Toms at the academy and as swing coach to the major champion. “A player can get a feeling faster, and feelings are what translate into swing changes.”
Photo by Omni Hotels.
Simply hold on and let the RoboGolfPro unit guide you through the perfect swing
