“As with every other shot in golf, in putting, it's the strike that counts.  Needless to say, this past week in Abu Dhabi, Rickie Fowler putted very well.  Rory McIlroy, who finished two shots back, did not.” That’s from John Haynes who headlines his post, “Driving an Imaginary Tack”.

Putting Genius: Wendell 'Fat Boy' Barnes
It so happened I turned to John’s blog after reading the Armchair golf blog where there’s an interesting comment about putting prowess.
Neil Sagebiel writes, “IN HIS BOOK LET 'ER RIP, Gardner Dickinson called him "the greatest putter I ever saw." That's saying something. Dickinson played on the PGA Tour during the Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus eras. A protege of Hogan who copied the Texas golf legend in nearly every way, Dickinson had seen many great players and putters in his long career.”

The “Putting genius,” was a man called Wendell Barnes who, “…employed a wristy stroke, common in those days, "like Lloyd Mangrum, Pete Cooper and Billy Casper," Dickinson recalled. "He stroked down on the ball, almost taking a little turf, and the roll he got was just uncanny. He popped the ball so smartly you could hear it clear across the green. In his mind, no putt was too long to make."

Hitting down or up?
Most of us have been taught to play the ball off the front when we are putting and primarily because it’s believed that this will encourage a slight up stroke and hopefully create overspin.
Hence hitting down is dubious way to improve one’s putting. And yet I recall that George Low who was a master of putting in his days and could win more money by gambling on his putting prowess compared to the paltry amounts available on the pro tour. George hinted on the idea of a slight downward blow and that your putting stroke should be “wristy but not flippy”.

The difference that made the difference
John Haynes observed, “What was interesting were the regular camera views that showed the difference between Fowler striking his putts and Rory striking his.  Rickie's putts were struck right in the centre of the back of the ball, and right in the centre of the sweet spot on the putter face.  Rory, on the other hand, seemed to be catching the ball a bit on the upswing and with the bottom edge of his putter.  Whether this was his intent, we do not know, but the number of makeable putts Rory missed certainly suggested that this manner of striking his putts was not producing optimum results.”

As to whether or not, “Driving an Imaginary Tack” into the back of your ball putting will put things right for your putting it’s hard to say but t’s worth a try

Link to John Haynes and to The Armchair golfer

Quote of the Day
Love and putting are mysteries for the philosopher to solve. Both subjects are beyond golfers. 
 - Tommy Armour aka “The silver-haired Scot”

“Hackers of the world unite- Jordan Spieth can chicken wing the left arm with the best of you!! And he is not the only one- great players and major champions of years gone by- Jose Maria Olazabal, Lanny Wadkins and David Duval all had bent left arms beyond the hit- so why are we informed this is a bad habit and something to avoid?” So writes Bradley Hughes golf pro and now turned golf swing guru.

Care to try it?
It does appear that Michael Breed who hosts The Golf Fix can take most of the credit for popularising the observation of Jordan Spieth's chicken-wing follow-through action.
Michael adding that Jordan’s action provides an excellent example of a successful body release. Then following up with the thought that some of us may like to try it.
Personally I’ve been there and hopefully now past it. It’s my experience that it leads to a passive hands situation and perhaps explains why Jordan is short of the tee; currently ranked at 162nd with an average length of 283.8 yards.

Hands, body or both?
I came to golf at a time when the great debate in British golf tuition was whether or not to adopt the American style of square-to-square swing with a greater emphasis on body action and less emphasis on the hands. The question became, “Are you a square or a roller,” with rolling the hands still very much to the fore in British thinking.

Using the lower part of the body as exemplified by Ben Hogan and then by Jack Nicklaus and others did suggest that this was the way ahead leaving only the likes of Julius Boros in the States and Henry Cotton in the UK as prime examples of hands-on emphasis with Cotton saying that, “You’re only as good as your hands.”
According to John Jacobs, one of the finest teachers in the world, “Golf is not played exclusively with the hands, nor is it played exclusively with the body. The whole art of the game is to synchronize body action with hand and wrist action. You just can't play well enough with either one alone. It's a swinging wrist cock. I like to call it two turns and a swish. That's the correct coordination of movement.” That’s a passage from an excellent article by Jaime Diaz.

And then there’s the knees
Bradley Hughes concludes his tuition, “The only thing I would want to attempt to alter with this golf swing would be how Spieth works too much onto the outside of his left foot coming into impact. This does affect his power slightly as keeping more stable into the left heel could definitely enable him to push harder off the right foot and hit slightly harder by saving the energy shift for later. The main concern with this however would be long term the effect this twisting may have on his left ankle/knee and hip. (My emphasis) I would try and incorporate a slight progressive change over time to eliminate that- more for the well being of his left side rather than in an attempt to gain more distance.”

God forbid that Jordan would in later years suffer similar aches and pains as has Tiger. And similarly senior citizens should think seriously before trying chicken-winging as a new way to go.
 
Link to Bradley Hughes  and Jaime Diaz

Quote of the Day
“So remember- not all "bad" things we hear about via instruction manuals and golf for dummies books are all 'bad'..... We are individuals and all have different ways and looks to achieve "good" components of the golf swing…” – Bradley Hughes.

“Golfer reveals heated exchange with Steve Williams,” is the headline from today’s New Zealand Herald which once again shows Stevie (What the Americans call him when they’re being polite) at his strident best.

No worries when compared to Kevin Na
The full story covering the ‘heated exchange’ comes from Alan Shipnuck’s, “Inside the Complicated Mind of Kevin Na: A Case Study in the Frailty of a Golfer's Psyche,” and leaves me thinking it’s bad enough having Stevie giving you a hard time about your slow play but it’s nothing compared to being unable to take the club back because you’re frozen on the spot. And then there’s the recognition we’ve got problems with our golf and golf swing but nothing quite as bad as Kevin Na.

Stevie you’re out of line
The whole story revolves around the September 2014, Deutsche Bank Championship when Kevin Na was paired with Adam Scott. 
Alan writes, "In the scoring tent," Na says, "as I was about to leave, Stevie looks at me and goes, 'Do you ever watch a bad movie again and again?' I didn't really know what he was talking about, so I just said, 'Uh, no.' He goes, 'That's what you are, Kevin, a bad movie. I never want to see you play again.' And I looked at him, and I said, 'Stevie, you're out of line. If Adam has a problem with my play, he has every right to say whatever he wants. You're in no position to tell me what you just said to me.' He got real close to me and was saying basically that he could say whatever he wanted. It was getting pretty heated, but one of the Tour officials stepped in and said, 'Guys, not in here.' And that ended it." (Williams declined to comment.)”

Na never gives up
In the opening round of the 2011 Valero Texas Open, Kevin carded a 16 on the par-4 9th hole and Alan Shipnuck concludes the sad story,  “His (Kevin Na) 10th shot advanced the ball maybe 10 yards closer to the fairway, but the 11th hit another tree, and the ball ricocheted deeper into the forest. On his 12th shot Na made clean contact and, at long last, got his ball into the rough. When he emerged from the thicket the crowd roared, and Na offered a beatific smile. This surprising good cheer endeared him to every hacker who has ever self-immolated on the course.”
Go to Alan’s article to read the full story even better watch it on YouTube. There’s a link below.

Here’s the link to the NZ Herald and Alan Shipnuck and Kevin Na’s 16 on YouTube

Quote of the Day
“Na acknowledges that the waggles, the balks, the heckling and the 16 will always be a part of who he is as a player."It's still 5% in there," he says, "but I feel more in control." – Alan Shipnuck

“Herbert Warren Wind called it the most natural course in the world. Tom Watson called it the most fun he'd had playing golf. Donald Ross called it his home,” and that’s what Golf Digest’s latest rankings of the 100-greatest-golf courses had to say about Royal Dornoch which comes 5th in the world; previously 6th. And in the Scottish course rankings comes before St Andrews.

St Andrews shunted from the top
Sounds incredible that St Andrews came second to Royal Dornoch in the rankings for Scottish golf courses. What’s even more incredible is that in my experience so few golfers are aware of the joys of Royal Dornoch. The fact that it’s a five-hour drive from Edinburgh perhaps explains its relative obscurity. Nevertheless those who’ve taken the trouble to play Dornoch will no doubt easily accept that it has pride of place in Scotland.

Maybe now that Castle Stuart, near Inverness which came 15th is already being recognised as a great golf course this will entice more people to go North.
Personally I found it very encouraging that some of my favourite; some would say off-the-beaten-track courses still feature in the Scottish top 20.
Machrihanish at 9th, Cruden Bay at 12th and my very favourite, The Machrie on the Isle of Islay comes in at 16th.

Top of the lot
Likewise it may come as a shock to some that Pine Valley falls from No1 as the top course in the world with Royal County Down G.C. taking its place and where, “On a clear spring day, with Dundrum Bay to the east, the Mountains of Mourne to the south and gorse-covered dunes in golden bloom, there is no lovelier place in golf than our new No. 1. Its design is attributed to Old Tom Morris but was refined by half a dozen architects in the past 120 years, most recently by Donald Steel. Though the greens are surprisingly flat, as if to compensate for the rugged terrain and numerous blind shots, bunkers are a definite highlight, most with arched eyebrows of dense marram grasses and impenetrable clumps of heather.”

A couple of Kiwi courses
Cape Kidnappers has gone from 22nd to 16th in GD’s global rankings. And Kauri Cliffs has gone from 39th to 49th and hard to understand why. Nevertheless two New Zealand courses in the top 50 in the world is quite an accomplishment.
As to the course rankings for New Zealand. 1) Cape Kidnappers 2) Kauri Cliffs 3) Kinloch 4) The Hills 5) Jack's Point 6) Paraparaumu Beach 7) Wairakei, I’ll just say I very much beg to differ and eagerly await next year’s rankings which should include the newly created Tara Iti course.

Here’s the link to Golf Digest Golf’s 100 greatest

Quote of the Day
“Not a links, more like stratospheric Pebble Beach, high atop a windswept plateau some 500 feet above the sea.” - From Golf Digest’s description of Cape Kidnappers.

“I play golf because the course is beautiful and I love being surrounded by beauty. It is good for my soul,” is one of Martha Pasternack’s reasons for taking up the game. She also runs a coaching business and every year challenges herself with a new long term task like learning how to speak Spanish, play the guitar and last year it was golf.

The long and short of it
Martha writes, “Golf teaches me foundational concepts about my online coaching business. The game of golf has a long game and a short game. The long game gets the ball from the tee onto the fairway. It teaches me about the set up: Vision, mission and planning.
The aim in the short game is to get the ball from the fairway onto the green. The short game teaches me that my posture and how I set up each shot determines the power in my swing to connect with the ball: How to connect with my clients and offer a service that is meaningful to them. Then there is the ever-important sinking-of- the-putt: The coach/client agreement.”

I’m not so sure Martha’s got it quite right with the, “The long game gets the ball from the tee onto the fairway,” since hitting greens is also part of the process.” And I’m still working on the sinking the putt, coach/client metaphor.

Golf as a metaphor for entrepreneurship
Dr Jeff Cornwall’s one shot at a time metaphor makes more sense when he writes, “Golf is a game best played one shot at a time. Never get ahead of yourself in this game or it will cost you! The minute you start thinking a score you can shoot is usually when it all falls apart on you. View your business one day, one pay period, one year at a time. I have seen too many entrepreneurs planning, or even worse spending, fortunes that they have not yet earned. In the process they usually take their eyes off what is critical at the moment and can jeopardize the whole venture.”

Golf and Other Bad Metaphors for Business
Thomas J. Lee writes, “Golf, however, is a perfectly awful metaphor in business. It is awful because there are no real parallels between performance in business and performance in golf. What matters in business has nothing to do with what matters in golf…the sport of golf is a solitary enterprise. It requires intense concentration, hushed silence, and perfect form, and it is so very leisurely. It isn't noisy or messy, and it certainly isn't fast. It does not require collaboration or innovation or engagement or teamwork or agility or communication of any sort—all of which are essential components of business success. Conducting an orchestra comes closer to running a business than golf ever can. For that matter, a Saturday night jazz quartet is more like a business than a Saturday morning foursome is.”

 Here's the link to Martha to Dr Cornwall and Thomas J. Lee

Quote of the Day
“I play golf because there are infinite opportunities to practice awareness of the breath. If I hold my breath it is harder to hit the ball straight. I get to practice proper posture and alert relaxation.”
– Martha Pasternack