Tales From The Bunker

 Last Saturday night Becky and I were sitting in a lounge enjoying a drink when she said she had been planning to ask me something for weeks.  Was she going to ask me for a new car, a divorce or maybe only a trial separation? Worse! She wanted me to go to Weight Watchers with her!

After the climb up the hill on the ninth hole at Alpine Golf Course (see earlier blog Golf Fitness The Hard Way) she felt the time had come to lose weight for the good of our golf game but also for our own good. I had never considered myself overweight and protested mightily. Well maybe I had a bit of a gut but what man doesn’t at a certain age. And maybe I was not getting the range of motion in my golf swing I had in the past. But wasn’t Weight Watchers just for women? 

After some verbal sparing we agreed to compute our BMI (Body Mass Index) and based on the results decide what we would do. A healthy BMI is 19-25. Becky’s computation produced a number within that range. Unfortunately I was a 27. Ouch!  

We are now on our third day of Weight Watchers and it isn’t too bad. Only 12 pounds left to my goal. I will keep you posted 

I remember Nick Faldo in a golf magazine saying you need to look honestly in the mirror and decide if your weight is affecting your golf game. I am not sure it affects my game but Nick probably would disagree with me.

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Recently I was watching some of Hank Haney’s videos on YouTube and I saw one on clubhead speed. Every golfer I have ever known wants more clubhead speed. His answer startled me.  

A second reason to obtain a weighted club is provided by Vijay Singh. He has attributed his success in his forty’s and his overall longevity to regularly swinging a weighted club. He keeps several around the house so it is convenient for him to use one.

Immediately after watching the video I went on eBay and purchased a used weighted club for around $25.00. It arrived yesterday and I am really excited to see if the result of swinging it daily will in fact increase my club head speed. I will keep you posted!

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One of the most difficult parts of the golf swing is determining and maintaining the relationship between the arms and the body.

Since the connection to the golf club starts with the golf grip (your hands), extends thorough your arms and finally ends with your body, this relationship is critical to a consistent and powerful golf swing. The power in a golf swing comes from the use of the body’s major muscle groups. Most amateurs in an effort to maximize the golf swing’s power try to make as big a shoulder turn a possible.  But if you take the club back with the shoulder joints only, you deprive yourself of the strength of the larger muscles in the shoulder.   

While this is certainly not new information  go to the driving range and watch most players disconnect their arms from their bodies on the backswing.  During the downswing the large muscles must be engaged but  there is no way to have a consistent swing if there is not a consistent coordination between your body and arms. The coordination is virtually impossible when the backswing is from the shoulder joint only.

David  Leadbetter has a drill were he has you put a towel under your left shoulder. The towel will drop if you arms are not in sync with your body.  Try it! It is harder than you think. We are all conditioned to make as big a shoulder turn as we can when in fact when our body stops so should our arms.

If you look at a picture of Ben Hogan’s backswing  in his prime his hands are barely higher than his head. No disconnection there.

As usual we can all take a lesson in how to play the game from Mr. Hogan.

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We were walking through the library yesterday trying to absorb a little literary intelligence when we noticed sitting prominently on the end of an aisle was a book called Learn to Play Golf in a Weekend.  We just had to check out a book with that title. 

Written by Edward Craig and published is 2005 by Octopus Publishing Group LTD, it has a clear cut plan to learn to play in two days. “Learn to Play golf in a Weekend will give you the skills to enjoy your golf game without the need for costly lessons.” Yeah Right! 

On Day 1 you learn the following;

• The Grip
• The Setup
• The Backswing
• The Downswing

 Sounds like an easy day!

On Day 2 you learn:

• Pitching and Chipping
• Bunkers
• Trouble shots
• Putting

 A couple hours should be sufficient for these aspects of the game. 

You then can go at your own pace with other aspects such as:

• Preparation
• Strategy
• Psychology
• Advanced Shots
• How to work the ball, etc.

 Piece of cake! 

In Tom’s case, after spending almost 40 years learning the game of golf…now he finds out he could have learned it in a weekend if he had just had the correct book.  It may not be too late for Becky as she has only been playing for 4 years and her bad habits can still change with the sage advice in this 127 page book. 

Ben Hogan deliberately published his classic Five Lessons The Modern Fundamentals of Golf one section at a time in a magazine so people could attempt to absorb one fundamental over the course several weeks. Obviously Ben had no idea golf could be learned in a weekend. 

On second thought, since Ben turned into a pretty good golfer maybe he was right.

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