Trust But Verify

 

Ok, here's a funny story for you...

Every new golf season I take my own advice and get the loft and lies checked on my forged Mizuno irons. Like clockwork! Well, this year was no exception only this year has a twist. 

After having my lofts and lies done I began playing fairly regularly. I noticed that I began to pull hook the ball or I would end up hitting the ball out of the toe that went nowhere! It wasn't every shot but on occasion, this was definitely occurring. I started thinking that maybe during the long layoff I had from the game over the winter, I just needed more practice or a tune-up lesson from the local pro. And indeed I did begin a more regimented practice routine to fix the problem. I even had the local pro take a look at my delivery, which was of no help! 

During my third round of league play, everything seemed to be going great. I was on track to shoot par when on two back-to-back holes I managed to find the club's toe. I'm talking toe when I say toe! Two shots that went straight down the middle of the fairway and very short of my intended target. I looked over at one of my playing partners on the second occurrence and asked if I did something different in my swing. He said no, but when was the last time I had my forged iron's loft and lies checked. I told him about three weeks ago. He said really? How were you hitting your clubs before you got them re-lofted? Straight down the middle with a slight draw was my response. Hum, is all he said in response. This definitely got me thinking about what was done to my clubs in the Pro Shop. 

Now here's the twist... 

I took my clubs to a trusted friend that happens to work in the golf department at Dick's Sporting Goods. I told him what was happening with the toe strikes and also told him that I had just had my clubs checked to be two degrees up, which is my spec. When we got the clubs on the machine and started measuring them, to my surprise, every club was two degrees flat. When I went in to get my clubs adjusted the last time I just dropped them off and then went in and picked them up afterward. I thought I was in good hands with the Pro Shop Wrench. Big mistake! I didn't ask any questions. I didn't go to the range to test them out. I just trusted that the guy would perform the task as required. Never again! I chalk this up as my mistake! 

The moral of this story is as the title of the post suggests - "Trust But Verify" that you are getting what you requested done to your clubs. Don't take for granted that the guy who's been repairing clubs for forty years always gets it right. People have been known to make mistakes no matter what their level of proficiency is. I'm sure he made a simple mistake when he read the service order. This is another lesson learned in my golf adventures. Next time I'll definitely make sure that what I requested to have done is done correctly. After spending money and time figuring all this out, my clubs are in great shape for the new season. 

Purchased With Skepticism - My New Launch Monitor

 Well, I finally did it! I bought myself a new launch monitor. The reason is simple, I needed something to train with. It seems that the old swing has been slowing down a bit. I've noticed that I've been losing a bit of distance lately and I needed a way to monitor a couple things like swing speed, ball speed, distance info, and smash factor (swing efficiency). 

I know the things that I listed are fairly basic but if you don't have access to a home simulator or GC Quad, these are the basic bits of information you need to work on improving your game. The other factor for my buying the device I bought, with just the basics, is the old home front budget. I don't think the spousal unit would be up for me spending thousands of dollars on a simulator or a very expensive launch monitor. 

After reading several reviews and pricing out different devices, I came across just what I was looking for... for the best price I could find. What I settled on was the PRGR Portable Launch Monitor. It sells for under 200 dollars! I got a really great price, well below the number I just mentioned through my search efforts. Drop me a line and I'll tell you where I got it. 

Now, I can't tell you how happy I am with the PRGR. It does exactly what I was hoping it would do and it does it very well with a couple of exceptions. The exceptions are minor but they do exist. While hitting into my home net, to get an accurate distance measurement I find I must be hitting at least 10 to 15 feet from the net. I don't know why, but that is the way it works. The other glaring shortcoming of the device is on the short end of the bag. It does not cope well with full wedge shorts. I don't know if it has to do with launch angles or what but it just doesn't cope well with full wedge shots. Other than these two items, I can't say anything truly bad about the device. It does what it was built to do and does it very well. 

One of the things I like most about the devices is that it is compact, lightweight, and it fits nicely in my golf bag or my pants pocket. It's about the size of my iPhone SE which is very compact. Another thing I like about the PRGR is the fact that I don't need to be hitting golf balls to work on my swing speed. It reads the speed of the clubface using Doppler radar and provides the actual speed of the club. I find this to be very cool and convenient!  I can work on swing speed without ever reaching for a golf ball. 

The PRGR is not just a one-trick pony. You can use it to provide speed measurement for sports other than golf. It has a baseball mode as well. You can measure the speed of a baseball bat, a pitch, or even the speed of a soccer ball if you like. For my purposes though, I think it will be primarily for golf, but you never know! 

To sum things up, if you are looking for a portable launch monitor that you can take with you to the course, the practice range, or your home training net - I highly recommend you give the PRGR a try! For the price, you just can't beat it! Thanks and happy fairways! 

Ability To Play MB Blades - Who Can Play Them?

 Ok, since all the craziness in the world has happened, i.e., Covid 19 and the fact that we've all been spending more time at home, I've been spending a bit of time watching YouTube videos. As evident by this blog page, I am consumed with golf - any and everything golf. With this being the case, I have been watching a lot of reviews on golf clubs as I may be in the market for a fresh set of custom clubs soon. I'm am particularly interested in a fresh set of bladed/muscle-back irons and to my dismay, I've come across many videos discussing how only pros or top ams can/should play them. After watching all those videos discussing  "should/can mid-handicapper play blades," my conclusion is - there is a lot of opinions on the topic that I just don't agree with. 

Up until the mid to late 70s when Ping/Kristen introduced the cavity-back iron, no one knew of any golf club other than a blade/muscle-back (MB) iron. We all had to learn how to hit a golf ball using a bladed iron. Did that keep anyone with a mind to play golf from learning how to hit them? No! Many weekend warrior golfers have played golf with blades to great success and enjoyment. I think there is a lot of emphasis on farther, faster and higher going on in the golf industry today, catering to an audience that has bought into it, hook, line, and sinker. It's no longer about course management and short-game improvement. "Let's all just bomb it down there and see what happens" is the new game. 

I have tried to get on the bandwagon of easier clubs to hit but I just can't make the shift to game improvement irons, even player forged distance irons, which I own a set of, feel unwieldy to me with their hotter face, larger sole, and cranked lofts.  Personally, I find the new generation of golf clubs unappealing. They mask imperfections in my swing and make mishits an even bigger issue than they are with my MBs. 

Everyone seems to fear blades/MB irons -why? On one of the coldest days of the year that I've played golf in a while, I decided to take my 20-year-old set of MBs to the course. All I heard from the guys in the clubhouse was how miserable I was going to be playing the MBs in the weather. I hear all the time how unforgiving the MBs are and how there just isn't any distance in them compared to modern designed clubs. All I have to say in response is - "you've never tried to play them, have you?" Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, I had my best round in months. 

So, getting to the topic of this post... Who should/can play blades? I think anyone can play them regardless of handicap. If you have a developed swing that allows you to hit the ball fairly consistently you should give them consideration. If you are looking for more consistency in dispersion from front to back carry of your ball, you should absolutely give them a go. If you are looking to improve your swing, you can find no better place than MB blades to find what you are looking for... If you are a beginner, I say this, if you can learn the game on blades and hit them consistently, there is not a club in the world you will not be able to hit! Blades are sweet little chunks of metal at the end of a stick that send the ball where you aim it. 

As you can tell, I'm in love with the shinny MB bladed iron. I have no problem stepping up to any tee box with my buddies, most with their strong lofted clubs and pulling the numbered club in my bag that matches the loft of theirs and hitting with ease. The number on the bottom of the club is not important to me. I do not need an 8 iron that travels 180 yards. I rely on the consistency of the clubs that I play, not the loft to stroke my ego, fooling me into thinking I can hit the ball like Tiger. With blades, if you need more distance, pull a higher numbered club. If you gap them in properly, I think you will find that each club is about 10 to 15 yards further down the fairway than the next lower club. That is called consistency. 

Well, it's all out of my system now... All the things I wanted to say to the guys in the video have been said. The biggest thing about golf is to enjoy the game no matter what clubs you are playing. But please, don't buy into all the rhetoric that the average golfer can't or should not play Blades/MBs. Most of the people espousing this opinion are addressing their own fears. Play the clubs you want and I'll see you on the course, the average guy playing his most forgiving MBs. Until the next time... Play well. 

Stop Trying To Hole Putts!

- Do This Instead... Stop trying to hole putts. Isn't that what you're meant to do? Well, yes and no. When you're putting your goal should be for the ball to go in the hole. But here's the thing... 

Have you ever hit a putt that you thought was perfect but for some reason, the ball didn't fall in? So what happened -- didn't you try hard enough? Maybe if you tried a bit harder the ball would have gone in. 

Obviously, that's stupid thinking. But when I watch a lot of people putting, they are trying really hard! I'm not pointing fingers either, because recently I've been guilty of this too. Everyone knows with putting that there's luck involved. You can hit a perfect putt and the ball may not go in. You can hit a putt that you swear was going to miss and it goes in. So why do we steer putts? 

When you watch the pros on T.V, very rarely do you see them steer putts. They put a nice stroke on the ball, hold their finish, and watch the outcome. But most "average" golfers stroke the ball, never hold their finish, and are trying to guide the ball into the hole with their putter and body. Or in other words, trying too hard. 

Look, when you putt you shouldn't overemphasize that you are trying to hole the putt. You shouldn't say things like "I need to hole this" or "come on, try really hard to hole this". That sort of thinking creates tension. And when you're tense while putting, for some reason the ball does not fall in. Instead, here's what you should do. 

Pick a line and pace for each putt and focus on hitting the putt along the line you've chosen with good speed, then let the outcome take care of itself. Instead of trying to hole the putt, you should be trying to do the task of putting as well as you can. Then, again, let the outcome take care of itself. 

What I'm talking about is focus. Focus on something you can control, e.g. your putting routine, your putting stroke, your mental attitude, your line, your speed. Don't focus on something you can't control, i.e. trying to hole the ball. Do this the next time you putt and you will hole more putts without trying. 

The concepts of tension and focus relate to every shot you play. For example,  if you're overly tense and steering your putts, you're more than likely going to be overly tense on your drives, your iron shots, your pitch shots, your chip shots, bunker shots, etc. 

If as you're reading this and thinking about your golf game, you may see yourself steering your shots and feeling tense at the end of your swings, then this is a major problem for you. And the only way you're going to improve your golf game is by learning how to hit shots with ONLY the necessary amount of tension. 

The Excessive Tension Test 

If after your shots you feel really tense or are moving your body around trying to steer the ball, then you've swung with too much tension. You will never enjoy playing golf or play up to your true potential if you continue to do that. 

The Golf Swing

The golf swing.

It's probably the most analyzed, dissected and debated movement of any sport.

One person likes Tiger Woods' swing, another person hates it.

One person likes Sergio Garcia's swing, another person hates it.

One person likes Ben Hogan's swing, another person hates it.

So is there ONE perfect golf swing?

Well, it depends on how you define a perfect golf swing.

If you look at the aesthetics of a golf swing then no, there is no perfect golf swing, because everyone has a different opinion.

So let's look at this in a different way.

Imagine this if you will...

You go to the PGA Championship driving range, which has arguably the best field in golf. And you go to the practice range to watch the best golfers in the world hit balls.

If you did that you would quickly notice that all of them hit it great.

You could have Jim Furyk hitting shots next to Rory McIlroy, and although Rory will no doubt be hitting it further than Jim, you'd notice that Jim hits it straight, far and consistent.

So would you swap your golf swing for Jim Furyk's?

If you just looked at the swing without seeing the result, most people would not swap their swing. But when you see the result of the swing, any amateur golfer would happily swap their swing with Jim's.

What I'm saying is that the results matter, not the way the swing looks.

But here's the problem for the average golfer when it comes to the golf swing.

Jim Furyk has hit thousands of balls to groove his unorthodox swing so that he hits the ball long and straight. Equally, so has Rory McIlroy.

There would NOT be a player on the PGA Tour that hasn't hit thousands of balls. So you could reasonably say, to hit the ball consistently long and straight then you need to hit thousands of balls.

That's a fact (but there is a shortcut, stay tuned for that).

The amount of balls pro's hit is common knowledge. And sadly a lot of amateur golfers wrongly think they need to just hit more golf balls too. But they're wrong. Because if you were to just hit more balls you would not get better, and in fact, you would probably just get worse.

Why?

Because by practicing more you would just make your bad habits even more ingrained.

You see, for the pro's, even though some of them have funny looking swings, they have figured out what it takes for them to return the club to a good impact position time after time.

If you haven't figured that out yet, then just beating balls is not going to help you.

Instead, if you really want to improve your ball striking you need to change your swing and then practice more (again, I have a shortcut).

To change your swing you need to.....

1. Have a clear idea in your mind as to how you want to swing, and

2. Groove that swing over and over again.

The fact is, if you want to improve your ball striking you need to change your swing, so that you get to impact consistently in a great position so the ball goes long and straight,

consistently.

Then you need to groove that new swing over and over again, so that out on the golf course you just automatically swing great. So there is a perfect swing for you, you just need to find it. Everybody is an individual and every swing is individual. A perfect swing for someone else will not necessarily be a perfect swing for you. So there's not 'one' perfect swing, but there is a perfect swing for you.

I'm sure this all makes complete sense to you, but there's a couple of big problems.

The first is how are you meant to change your swing so it's perfect for you? And the second is how are you going to find the time to hit thousands of balls in order to groove that swing into a habit?

Well, I've discovered a massive shortcut to both of those problems. And I have put together a new program to teach you how to find the perfect golf swing for you, and then groove that golf swing over and over again in the minimum amount of time.

There is nothing out there like this new method of improving your golf swing. It's a revolutionary breakthrough in golf instruction. So if you want to FINALLY hit the ball longer, straighter and more consistently without the need to hit thousands of balls, go here to find out more.

 Reflections on a Golf Season!

Where to begin? 2020 was a difficult year for us all  - Covid 19 bashed many a dream. The plans that were made and not kept were immeasurable. The only bright side to any of 2020 for me personally was the fact that the golf courses remained open... 

The golf course served as a refuge for many of us. Sanity and fellowship with other human beings was a godsend. Now to say the fact that I was able to get out on the course made me a better player in 2020 would be a stretch, My handicap actually climbed about 4 strokes in 2020. Sure, I had some great rounds but there were those really bad ones as well. There were times when I was on the course just for the simple fact that there was nothing else to do. This is not how I wish to approach the game. There were other things that lead to the poor rounds that I endured. Things like losing my comfort in hitting certain clubs, injury, and general lethargy in my approach to the game I love so much. 

Well, the 2021 season has begun and I for one have set myself a couple of goals. Firstly, I want to continue to enjoy the game. Secondly, I truly intend on getting back in touch with the clubs that I struggled with at times last year. Third, I want to get the handicap back down a couple of strokes. I do have a plan...  

I've decided to practice with intention, paying a bit more attention to the short game. Additionally, I think I'll seek out the advice of a professional. It's been a while since I last had a lesson! I'm also going to take a good long look at my equipment.

I know for a fact that my grips on either set of my clubs are not in the best of shape. The attachment of the hands to the golf club can make all the difference in the world. Besides, I have corded grips on one set and dry tacks on the other. I really prefer the cords over the dry tacks, so why don't I have to on both sets of my clubs? I'm almost positive that the consistency of the grips will make an improvement. I'm thinking of changing my putter grip as well. The old Ping is begging for a regrip... 

One more thing that I have to do before we get too far down the road is getting the loft and lies checked. I beat the crap of many a golf mat last season. I'm sure that the loft and lies of my forged clubs are nowhere near the spec that they were built to are true. 

Enough rambling... What are your goals for the 2021 season? Do you want to lower your handicap? Be more consistent? Have you given it a thought? Setting goals can be fun and may bring about the change you are looking for. Until next, cheers!

Novo's Golf Adventures: The Stress-Free Golf Swing - Excerpt I Want To S...

Novo's Golf Adventures: The Stress-Free Golf Swing - Excerpt I Want To S...: Here is a small sample from The Stress-Free Golf Swing... First I want you to imagine... - Swinging without a million and one swing tho...

Novo's Golf Adventures: What's in Your Golf Bag?

Novo's Golf Adventures: What's in Your Golf Bag?: Having played golf for at least 40 years, one can only imagine all the different clubs that have been in the bag. Clubs ranging from Pin...

The Stress-Free Golf Swing - Excerpt I Want To Share With You...

Here is a small sample from The Stress-Free Golf Swing...

First I want you to imagine...

- Swinging without a million and one swing thoughts going through your head.
- Playing golf and not trying to find a swing to use that day, because you have a simple one you can rely on and trust.
- Having one key move that you practice and perfect, and the rest of the swing just falls into place.
- Swinging with one key swing thought and that swing thought staying the same, from one swing to the next and from one game to the next.

Sound far-fetched?

It's NOT!

The advice given to you in this book is for you to have the simplest golf swing on earth. It finally solves the problem of golf swing timing for us busy golfers who don't spend hours every day hitting balls.

Now in the main part of this book, I have not included any information on the setup. But at the end of this book, I have included some bonus information on the setup, if you want to refresh yourself with the important aspects of the setup.

This book, however, is about the golf swing, and how to make that easier. The setup is obviously very important. But if your setup is ok then you'll get the most bang for your buck by improving your golf swing and making it more efficient and easier. That's what this book is all about, so let's get started...

The Modern Swing Problem

One of the things that the majority of golfers find most challenging about the modern golf swing is timing. One day you have it and the next you don't. It's very frustrating, isn't it?

And when you look at the golf pros on tour they seem to have good timing day after day. But here's the thing...

They hit hundreds of balls every day to have that timing. You, on the other hand, I imagine don't have the luxury of spending hours and hours every day hitting balls.

Even if you do have the time to spend every day hitting balls, what I share in this stress-free golf swing method will make the golf swing a lot easier. And this one move comes from a golfer who basically invented practicing, Ben Hogan.

Ben was also one of the best, most consistent ball strikers the world has ever seen.

And I believe he knew exactly what the secret was to his consistent swing, but he never revealed it to anyone. I also believe at the end of his career he didn't hit lots of balls every day to figure his swing out... but instead, he did it because he loved to hit the golf ball properly.

It's well documented that Ben Hogan had a bad problem with a hook earlier in his golfing career. And it's well known that Ben changed his grip from a strong grip to a weak grip to help combat this. He did this before his car crash in 1949.

But after the car crash, his ball-striking improved!

The 3-time major champion and hall of fame golfer, Cary Middlecoff, said that Hogan was as inconsistent as most tournament professionals before the accident, scattering drives in the rough and imprecise with his irons.

"It was in 1950 that he began showing the kind of precision golf that set him apart".
- Cary Middlecoff

Because of the car crash, Hogan saved his strength to focus solely on winning major championships. And win them he did!

Just 17 months after his car crash Hogan won the 1950 U.S. Open. That's the one with the famous 1-iron into the green at the last.

Then of course, in 1953 he won The Masters, The U.S. Open and the British Open and unfortunately he couldn't compete in the PGA Championship because the qualifying was at the same time as the British Open.

However, I won't go on about his record after the crash, because you can look into that more if you want to.

The point is, Hogan said he had a secret and his ball-striking improved after the car crash.

In April 1954 Life Magazine published an article in which Ben Hogan was quoted as saying....

"I have a secret... It is easy to see if I tell you where to look."

In the next chapter, I am going to explain what I believe the secret was, and show you evidence for this. But before I do that, here's the problem with the modern golf swing that is often taught these days (and I'm not pointing fingers, because I have taught this and I learned this)....

That's a small sample from the new Stress-Free Golf Swing. To find out more about The Stress-Free Golf Swing, simply go here.

CLICK HERE!