What Have I Found? part deaux

The entire Robert Allenby approaching me in a dream is not quite accurate. You see, I was watching Robert Allenby play golf during the recent Race to Dubai Golf Tournament on the Golf Channel. He appears, during his golf swing, to simply turn away from the ball, pause at the top of the swing, and then turn back through. It looks as though he is not manipulating the club with his hands AT ALL. It's like his hands, and therefore the golf club, is just following his body turn, with rigid elbows making the connection from body to hands.

Does that make any sense? The set up still has to be square to your target, and the ball position still needs to be correct, but otherwise it is a very simple move. Rigid elbows, and loose, supple wrists. The looseness of the wrists allows the club to lag behind on the downswing. The club catches up, similar to the tip of a whip, right at impact. Think Roots where the guy is whipping Kunta Kintay because he will not take his slave name. The whip cracking is the tip actually passing the speed of sound. That is fast.

Albert Pujols is a power hitter in Major League baseball. He plays for the St. Louis Cardinals and can hit a baseball a country mile. Why a country mile is longer than a city mile I have no clue, but there you go. He hits the ball a long way. If you watch his technique closely you can see that he has rigid elbows, with his back elbow (his right arm) away from his body. This is so the bat does not drop to the inside of his desired swing path. If the bat did drop to the inside he would swing under the ball, or at least have to manipulate the bat with his hands and arms to just make contact. Any such manipulation would rob him of power, and the ability to hit the ball SQUARE.

Hitting the ball square is the key to both a straight and long golf shot. If the face is not square at impact then the ball will not go straight, and it will lack maximum power. So, this was my hypothesis, and I took it to the course on Sunday.

Tee to green I hit the ball straighter and more crisply than ever before. I can think of only one shot, and it was an easy wedge, that I hit poorly. Off the tee I was a God. Long and straight all day long. The only time I got into trouble was when I let the club head travel inside the target line on the takeaway. If I consciously kept the clubhead OUTSIDE of the target line on the takeaway, and kept my elbows rigid, with my wrists supple, then I cranked a long and STRAIGHT tee shot. It was wonderful.

As usually happens though the golf golds would not allow me to be very happy. If I did miss a green I was sure to dub my chip, or possibly three putt from 15 feet. I have never had a worse short game than that day. I lost one golf ball and shot a smooth 88. It could not have been worse if I had tried.

My friend, Dean, who may be the worst chipper ever, actually had a better short game than I because he used a designated chipping club. It's basically a putter with a loft of an 8 iron. It helped him immensely, and as he gains confidence it is hoped, by all who play with him, that he will be able to begin using his regular clubs around the greens once again. Meanwhile... I have contracted his obviously catchy syndrome.

I think the scientific name for this mental problem is wedgeaphobia. The fear of wedges. Many people mistake this for a fear of being crammed, or wedged, into a small space. But, no, it is a fear of the pitching wedge. Damn, I'm infected. Now what?

The putter, the old new putter that was supposed to revitalize my game? Suck it. I had countless three putts. In fact I had two three putts for pars! Unbelievable and disconcerting at the same time.

I am at a loss. One the one hand I feel like I have had a breakthrough with my long game, which is nice. On the other I feel like I have lost the ability to score. I don't know where this will lead but at least I have become mature enough to not throw any clubs in ponds, or break them over my knee, or take a divot out of the green (I did that only once, and it was an accident), or spaz out in any fashion. So, that is encouraging. It's just a technique issue, and a practice issue, which can be fixed.

I'm off to the practice green. Out.