LinksLifeGolf

by Jeff Skinner

My golf season is well under way and even though the weather in the Northeast can still play havoc with our tee times, we all have had enough opportunities to find our game.  Unfortunately, not all of my game was there to be found.  I’ve spent plenty of time on the practice range to get my old muscles back in the swing of things.  Unlike most golfers I won’t spend hours pumping drivers out on the range.  I’ll spend more time with my wedge on the chipping green trying to hole out a few.  When you’re a short hitter like I am, you need to depend on your scoring clubs like the wedge and the putter.  That’s been my game for a long time.  I’ll hit a few fairways now and then but not too many greens so I’ll always need to rely on my wedges to chip it close to have a chance at par.  On a good day my scorecard will be filled with some pars but not too many GIR’s (greens in regulation) but I’ll always have a bunch of one putts.  Miss the green, chip it close and sink the putt, that’s my game.  It’s not pretty but I’ll take it.

But this season my trusty old short stick has been slow to come around.  I’ve been the victim of more lip outs, woefully short putts, bad reads and three putts to fill an entire season or two.  My putting has been uncharacteristically poor.   When my putter is off I am in big trouble and even though a bad round of golf is better than your best day at work, poor putting can really be depressing.

Then it hit me.  While I was driving somewhere and going over my last round in my head, I realized I hadn’t completed all of my pre-season preparations.  Each year when the snow starts to melt and we are watching the pros play in the warm weather I start my preparation by re-reading my putting bible: Dr. Bob Rotella’s “Putting Out of Your Mind.”  For me that book is a much a critical part of my game as my Cobras and Footjoys.  For me to get my putter working I need to get my head in the right place and nobody works for me like Rotella.  Rotella has a magical effect on me and my game.  His simple strategies work wonders for me and the dozens of professionals that he works with.

Two old axioms say it all: Drive for show and putt for dough; and Golf is a game played on a five inch course, the distance between your ears.  Rotella uses simple, positive reinforcement techniques to get his players thinking in the right frame of mind, once your mind is right your game will follow.

Rotella tells the story of Jack Nicklaus stating that he never three putted on the last hole of a tournament or missed a putt from inside five feet on the last hole of a tournament.  When Nicklaus is asked about it and given a time and date that he indeed had missed one of those putts, he refuses to recognize it and still insists that he had not missed from five feet or three putted on the last hole.  Rotella finishes the story after the questioner asked Rotella why Nicklaus wouldn’t admit it:

“I asked the man if he played golf.  ‘Yes’ he said.

‘What’s your handicap?’ I asked.

‘About sixteen’ he said.

‘And if you missed a short putt on the last hole of a tournament, you’d remember it and admit it, ‘I observed.

‘Of course,’ he confirmed.

‘So let me get this straight,’ I said. ‘You’re a sixteen handicap, and Jack Nicklaus is the greatest golfer ever, and you want Jack to think like you?’

The man had no answer.”

It’s simple.  Convince yourself that you’re a great putter and the putts will fall.   Excuse me while I get back to my reading.  I still have a few chapters left before my game tomorrow.

by Jeff Skinner

Up here in the Northeast the heavy rains of last week has washed away most of the remaining snow and that brings us a few days closer to opening day for the local golf courses.  With the memory of the Florida golf trip fading fast I’m anxiously awaiting the day when I can tee it up and once again walk down a fairway.  Now’s the time each swing is perfect, each drive lands in the fairway, every approach sits on the green and every putt dies in the hole.  It’s the time when we visualize all those great rounds we’ll be playing.  Hope springs eternal this time of year.  But before I run out and hit a few I’ll check out Jack’s video tip and be comforted in the fact that I haven’t blown it yet this year.

Remember our troops today and every day. It is because of their sacrifice that we can live our lives.

Thanks to all our troops serving all over the world.

“Hooks and Slices” will bring you our view on whats happening in the golf world.

I thought rookie Matt Bettencourt moving up to tie for the lead at The Memorial was great, but the real surprise was Geoff Ogilvy. On Friday he finished with a double bogey and a bogey. Thinking his 74 put him out of the tournament, he was so upset he tossed a club while still on the green. He entered Saturday’s round T57, shoots a near perfect 63 and puts himself back in the hunt and finishes T5. How fickle this game can be. He may have entered what I call the “I don’t give a s__t zone.” That’s when you are so out of it or frustrated with your game that you really don’t care. At that point you’ve taken all the pressure off yourself, you stop thinking and just swing. If that was the case for Geoff it worked pretty well. The rest of the field better hope he starts “giving a s__t” today or he’ll be the one posing with Jack’s trophy.

A pair of Cristie’s/Kristy’s (take your pick on the spelling) share the lead at the LPGA State Farm Classic. Cristie Kerr shot a 66 to catch and tie Kristy McPherson. Kerr is number four in the World Rankings now, but no one is more fun to watch on the course than Kristy McPherson. She takes chances and is always talking to herself and her ball. She must think she is still on The Big Break and the television microphones are always close enough to pick up her South Carolina twang.

The sports culture in America has grown tremendously over the last decades. Our society is consumed with sports and the people associated with it. We may think that the issues and interests that face today’s sportsmen and fans are different from those of thirty years ago, but they are really not. I recently came across an issue of Golf Magazine from 1971. It was their Annual issue and it took a glance back at 1970 and a look toward 1971. It included many of the features of a current issue of Golf Magazine and all that we golf fans have come to expect from Golf. It had articles on instruction, travel, business, fashion, equipment, television and interviews. It had plenty of instructional tips by the pros of the day. There was an article that covered Shell announcing that it would no longer support the Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf. There was an extensive article on the popular winter and summer golf resorts. It was strange to see advertisements for beer, liquor and cigarettes. Take out the ads that no longer appear in magazines and update the graphics and you would have the same content in the magazine that we have today.

One of the features was an article on Lee Trevino. He had already won a US Open and was entering a stretch where he was the main challenger for Jack Nicklaus. The title of the piece was “Lee Trevino Talking”, isn’t he always. In the article he predicts the winners of the 1971 major championships. He chose Nicklaus for the PGA, Bert Yancey for the Masters, Nicklaus for the US Open and himself for the British. He wasn’t far off. Charles Coody won the Masters, so he missed that one but Nicklaus won the PGA and Trevino captured the British Open and he out dueled Nicklaus in a US Open playoff. There was plenty of controversy over equipment back then also and Trevino discussed the “ball size change.” The R & A and the USGA were trying to come to an agreement on a standard ball size. Trevino also is seen in a picture with fans holding signs at a PGA Tour event. Shortly thereafter the tour banned the fans from displaying any signs. There was an ad for a Jack Nicklaus instructional movie: an 8mm film with a separate cassette with the audio for $24.95, that’s pretty pricey considering you, could spend a week at Pinehurst for $134 dollars. Yes, seven days and six nights, all day golf, breakfast, dinner and tips and no extra surcharge for #2. Callaway Gardens in Georgia had an ad for all day golf for $17 dollars, which included room, breakfast, dinner and a boat to use to fish on their own lake. The 1971 Annual also listed the year’s upcoming events, all thirty three events. Only three of them had a corporate sponsor’s name attached their name. On the back cover is an ad for Michelob, with the copy that reads, “It’s an unexpected pleasure…No matter how you slice it.” That’s a fairly good play on words and the beer looked nice and cold. Oh, the good old days!

Take a look at some of the pages from Golf’s 1971 Annual; it’s a blast from the past.

Thanks to Mike McCall of Casperkill Country Club.

Learn how to generate more power by turning around your central axis from 5-time Long Drive Champion Jason Zuback.

Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson always thought that you need to have your eyes over the path of the ball as you putted. Looking directly down at the ball was critical to Jack and Tom. You can check and practice your alignment by taking your stance, then take one hand off of the club and with another ball in that hand, drop it straight down from the bridge of your nose. It should land on the ball you are putting. If it was good enough for them we have to try it.