Golf Egg Hunt (25 April 2011)

There were many golf eggs left around Cottonwood GC on the day after Easter for the LUGGers to poach as they played a few holes last Monday. We walked past a few donkeys, ducked a few chirpy acorn woodpeckers, skipped along with a few rabbits and even spotted a few golfers on the golf course, but the giant colored eggs-laying Easter bunny remained too elusive to spot (perhaps it was disguised as the coaches!).

The eggs proved rather difficult to cook properly, though when crisply cracked they spilled some goodies of their own. Aside from chewy candies held in some, many hatched magical coupons redeemable for more goodies from Coach Mary at the end of the round. Some went home with an armful of colored golf balls while others got loaded up on school supplies and candies. It was a lot of fun for practically everybody involved.

Our next event (on Monday May 2nd) is the 'Fast, Safe & Courteous Event'. Please bring golf clubs and wear athletic shoes and meet at the Cottonwood driving range at 3:30PM as usual!

27 Shot Challenge (18 April 2011)

The weather changed and so did our plan. Our 'Note in the Hole' game was postponed for a week as we instead worked on a few things and completed the 27 holes challenge at the range before closing the day playing a 9 hole "up & down" game chipping and putting on the green.

Much of the session was spent on completing the 27 shot challenge where we tried different concentration technique while hitting golf shots in order to see which works best for each of us. Some did really well visualizing the shot and some preferred counting or humming a tune as we hit the ball. Pop, went many weasels in our head, but luckily everybody stayed in tune through out the challenge.

 
Pre-shot routine.

One of the secrets to playing consistently good golf is, of course, having a consistent pre-shot routine that allows you to get into the playing mindset where you focus on your shot and then execute it the same way every time. At last week's event, we introduced doing most of our shot-planning and thinking in the 'think box' a few paces behind the ball, then only focusing on creating the shot when you move into the 'play box' as you address the ball. Have a look at a few successful golf professionals' pre-shot routines.

We each have to develop our own pre-shot routine that give us confidence! But you can see from the video how the elite golfers do a few basic things in common. They take their practice swings while they are in the 'think box' behind the ball, and once they move into the 'play box' they either play the shot very quickly or they back off back into the 'think box' again if something doesn't feel right (see Padraig Harrington in the video).

Aside from really helping you concentrate better when playing on the golf course, having a pre-shot routine also makes you look like a cool professional. That never hurts!

We hope to see all the EC LUGGers again on the Monday after Easter (April 25th), of course. Get to Cottonwood GC driving range by 3:30PM and be ready for a fun day of Golf Egg Hunt!

Golf Basics for Beginners 2: Pitching

Pitching:

We were also introduced to pitching during the last meeting. Pitching refers to the short and high shots we hit with our pitching wedge (PW), lob wedge (L), or sand wedge (SW) from close around the green. This is not a full-swing shot.

Like the chip shot, we want to choke down on the club a little. Unlike the chip shot, we place the ball in the middle of our stance or a little forward of it (for higher shots), and we will allow the wrists to set on the backswing (so that the clubhead can go higher than our hands) and the same thing on the downswing so that we finish with the club pointing toward the pin or upward. The pitch shot is the first half of a full swing.

Swing drill:

You can practice your golf swing even if you don't live near a golf course! Here is a good swing drill you can practice in your living room using nothing but a golf club (you can use a long stick if you don't own a golf club, even!).

The key is to stand as if you are addressing a golf ball, pick a spot to stand in for the ball and keep your eyes on it until well into your follow-through. It is okay for the head to move a little from side to side, but you want to keep the spine angle you have at address through out the swing rotation. Turn your shoulders and hips and keep the rotation as fluid as possible finishing facing your target!

Golf Basics for Beginners 1: Grip & Alignment

Golf is a much easier game to try to tame when you start off with good swing basics, and the most basic of any golf swing is the way you grip the club! There are a few different ways of gripping the golf club. The three most effective gripping styles are:

1. Overlap (Vardon) Grip: With the little finger of the right hand (for right-handed golfers) placed on top of the groove between the index and middle finger of the left hand. This is sometimes called the 'Vardon' grip after Harry Vardon, the English golf professional who invented it. This is the most widely used grip since it encourages the using of the two hands as one unit while also allowing the right hand leverage for extra power.
2. Ten Finger (Baseball) Grip: Is the most athletic gripping style that allows for a lot of power, but usually at the expense of being able to consistently use both hands as one unit. It can be the best grip for golfers with small or weak hands, however.
3. Interlock Grip: Is the opposite of the Ten Finger Grip in that it promotes consistent use of both hands as one unit (good for control of ball path and flight) even though it doesn't allow much use of hand for extra power.

From left to right: the overlap (Vardon) grip, ten finger (baseball) grip, and the interlock grip.

Whichever grip you use, be sure to rest the club at the base of your fingers rather than in the palm of your hands!

Alignment:

One hard thing about golf is that we do not have direct line of sight of our club-path and the target. We are hitting the ball while standing to its side! So when you line up your shot, it is best to first stand behind your golf ball and picture in your mind's eyes a straight line that runs from your ball all the way to your target (this is your 'target line'). Try to pick out something on the ground that lies on that line a foot or two in front of your ball (we call that our 'intermediate target'). Walk up to the ball and take your stance aiming the club-face at the intermediate target. Imagine the line between your ball and the intermediate target as your 'target line' and lining your feet up parallel to it.

Body alignment parallel to the target line

In this photo, Coach Mary has lined herself up toward the red flag on the driving range (the wind was blowing from right to left, so she is aiming a bit to the right of the flag to compensate for that). The blue line is her target line, with the intermediate target being a white tee (in the yellow circle) that happened to be on that line. She then lined up her body line (orange lines) parallel to the target line. Now she is set to hit the ball!

Lining up the club-face.

How do you aim your club-head as you stand over the ball? Look down at the leading edge of your club-face (highlighted in red in the illustration). The club-head is 'squared' to the target line when its leading edge is perpendicular to it (the middle photo).

Blind Holes (11 April 2011)

Great turn out for last Monday's 'Blind Holes' round at Cottonwood GC. The weather was perfectly sunny and mild. The birds were singing (and the ones that weren't singing were busy pecking holes into the cottonwood trees along the course). Great weather for golfing!

The game of the day was 'Blind Holes', of course. Sneakily educational Coach Mary went about posting instructions on the tees and greens on the back nine of Ivanhoe course before hand. And each LUGGer had to comply to the posted instruction through out each hole they played. The instructions were all meant to enable our budding golfers to explore the various dominant sensory modes of thinking that worked best for them during a golf round. Some are quite counter-intuitive.... like this:

If you wonder what this has to do with golfing mind-set, try it and see. Sometimes it helps to focus on doing a task so much that one doesn't have time to worry about things one shouldn't worry about on the golf course - swing mechanics being a chief example, of course.

Since each of the LUGGers are their own individuals, some preferred one blind hole instruction over the others, though it doesn't hurt to explore them all. After all, how do you know what works best for you if you haven't tried all the various ways first?

Our next event is similar to the last. We meet, as usual, from 3:30-5:30PM at the Cottonwood GC driving range on Monday April 18th for our 'Note in the Hole' event!

3 Ring Circus (4 April 2011)

Last week we had a circusy good time learning the chip shot on the range and the practice greens. Practicing chip shots on the range was trying, of course. So much room, so little swing!

But golf is the game of getting the ball into the cup with the least number of strokes rather than a game of mindless ball-striking... And chipping is, aside from being a great help in making good score even when missing the green, fun! 

The trick to chipping, of course, is to always have control of the club face. A good chipper chokes down on the club and chips with a putting stroke - always keeping her hands ahead of the club-head through impact. A little hop, then the ball rolls the rest of the way into the hole. And, voila! A par is saved! 

After some practice on the range we had a fun hour navigating the                "3 Ring" obstacle course Coach Mary set up in the practice area. Touchy putting holes followed by feel-developing ball tossing stations, balance wobble boards & pods course, and chipping holes. Topping it off, the LUGGERs got to vent off at the smiling clown pinata that went 'poof' after a few good slugging swings with a pitching wedge - deploying a shower of candies from its swinging legs. A sweet reward after two sunny hours on the golf course!

Our next event (April 11th from 3:30-5:30PM) is 'Blind Holes'. See you all at Cottonwood GC driving range!