For Your Swing by Dave Ramsay - may 2011

The Great Equalizer
 
Since my return to playing golf on a semi-regular basis started last spring, I had planned to work on my game through the off-season and avoid having to fight my way through 'rusty swing syndrome' this year.  A good intention, to be sure, but you know what they say about good intentions.  Or maybe you don't know what they say, but rest assured that it's not flattering!  Long story short, I didn't work on my game at all after October and now I need to scramble to get my game in shape for a few spring tournaments.  Does this sound familiar to anyone out there?  How many of you are pulling your clubs out of garage corners or closets, wondering why you weren't able to hit balls and play the occasional winter round?  Guilty.
 
I made an effort to hit a few balls on the range and on the course here and there, working to re-connect with my PGA fundamentals (that's Posture - Grip - Alignment).  With the actual swing, I tried to focus on working out the kinks of tempo and rhythm in my full swing, and ignore the trap of trying to correct where every shot went.  Knowing my mechanics would be off for awhile, it would be easy to jump right in to start 'fixing' everything, but as I tell many students coming out of a long layoff from the game, you've got to shake the cobwebs off and allow your body to remember what it's like to make connected, balanced swings.  Working on swing mechanics and body positions seems to work better (and change easier) after tempo and timing is starting to become familiar again.
 
In my case, I played with the Men's Club twice right after we aerified the greens.  My first round was about what I'd expect - like a classic spaghetti western, I saw a mix of Good, Bad, and Ugly.  The second round was a bit surprising, though.  I felt like I hardly missed a shot until partially into the back nine, with many shots that were dead on target.  Only a couple of bad shots down the stretch, along with some bizarre chipping bounces and zigzagging putts on our bumpy/sandy greens kept me from staying at par.  What little practice I had been able to put in seemed to be paying off early with a head start on my rhythm and tempo. 
 
My next round, however, was an 'away' tournament at a very nice, well-conditioned course.  Not wanting my previous round's good ball-striking to be a fluke, I kept with the same focus on setup and tempo, along with a couple of minor swing adjustments (telling myself to wait on the bigger changes until later).  Again, during my round I had long stretches with surprisingly good ball striking for this early in my season.  However, I quickly realized that I'd made a common and critical error: I'd given minimal attention to working on putting and my short game!  I was absolutely humbled on those fast greens, with numerous three-putts from only 7 to 15 feet.  I had a difficult time adjusting to the speed early in the round, and then I started feeling tentative and even doubtful over most putts through the whole day.  I had gotten decent results on our sanded greens, but you're not going to be rewarded with great putting fundamentals after aerification.  Naturally, it was easy for me to not worry much about short game because after aerification, accurate feedback in any practice is minimized.  I think that subconsciously, short game practice seemed less relevant to immediate improvement - and so putting took a back seat to my full swing.  Slow and sandy greens were allowing me to ignore my rusty fundamentals.  And in my interest in NOT hitting terrible shots, I happily did ignore the short game until later.
 
Putting (and chipping) has long been called the Great Equalizer in golf because of how a solid short game can make up for a so-so long game (and conversely, a weak short game can destroy a solid long game).  This fact absolutely maddened Ben Hogan.  Many consider Hogan to be the pre-eminent ball-striker in golf's history.  He hit the ball extremely well into advanced age, but his putting began progressively declining while he was still in his prime.  By the time he was in his mid forties, he was continually hampered by his inability on and around the greens.  Historians consider that he may have won as many as five more major championships with even an average professional's short game (including the benchmark-famous 1960 US Open duel between Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and eventual winner Arnold Palmer).  Hogan was so frustrated with golf's Equalizing aspect that seemingly "punished" his full swing, that he even proposed that the rules be amended so that short shots would count for less than long shots.  How could a rudimentary 12-inch putt count for one stroke, just the same as the 220 yard 2-iron over water and hazard to a tucked left-front hole location that made that simple putt possible?  As Hogan aged, he worked as hard as ever on his long game, and gradually less on the short game that frustrated him.  Like all of us, he enjoyed working on his strengths that reinforced his satisfaction, but neglected the weakness that humbled him.  Golf increasingly became a tee-to-green endeavor, and getting the ball in the hole wasn't as interesting.  Yeah, that's what I did too, in my rush to get jump-started again.  Of course, I don't hit the ball anything like Mr. Consistency, Ben Hogan.  I just picked one weakness to work on and ignored the other.  Now I've got to adjust my goals in the coming weeks to get a little better-rounded to avoid more disasters!
 
So my humbling personal experience is a lesson to share with anyone dusting their clubs off is to NOT neglect your short game and put in some time around the practice green.  Repeatedly practicing the critical lengths of 3-6 feet can help you nail down your alignment, path, and face angle.  Working on the 10-30 footers will help you develop your touch for correct speed (and re-learn your green-reading skills as the greens grow in the next couple of weeks).  I have half-dozen really useful drills for various aspects of putting and chipping, but there are few things better for early in the season with limited time than to drop a single ball down and work around the green.  Start from various lengths, read and line everything up, and hole everything out.  Don't tap in anything longer than 12 inches - get behind it, read it, and set up as if it was another tricky 5 footer.  Be disciplined on committing to each putt, and it'll be less taxing to do so on the course. 
 
Let me know if you're going to practice your short game, maybe I can sneak out of the shop for a few minutes to play a game or two with you.  Like you, the only way I'll get better is to drag myself down there and do the work and drills.
 
Hope to see you at the course!
 
Dave