GETTING BACK IN THE "GROOVE"

So now that the season has started, golfers are always looking for a "quick fix" to their layoff problems. Mostly, when you have a long layoff, the hardest things to work on are your short game and your rhythm. Unless you used your living room as a putting green during the winter, a putter will feel out of place in your hands, so will a wedge for short chip and pitch shots. Trust me, even if your living room carpet is of different green speeds than your course's greens, just having a putter in your hand and hitting a few putts during the winter, feeling the solidness of impact, will help your speed on your greens. However, since most of you didn't do that, the best way to work on your touch (speed control) on the greens is the following exercise, which will only take a few minutes of your time before your early spring rounds: Go to our putting green, which thankfully, has a good slope, and place four balls 2 feet (a putter's length is 3 feet, so somewhere inside the bottom of your grip) around any of the holes. Putt them all in, maybe three or four times around. If you have not practiced any putting, chances are that you will miss a few, even from 2 feet away. You are working on your "directional" stroke. Most of these putts, even on a slope, have little or no break. Try to putt firmly and never aim outside the hole, never more than the inside of the high lip. Once you feel comfortable that you can make 10 or more out of 12, go to 3 feet out and do the same. You may even start at 1 foot. In this first exercise, the object is to "make", in other words, to get used to seeing and hearing the ball go in the hole. Once you feel comfortable from 3 feet, try a few mid range putts, from 10-15 feet, and then from 15-20 feet. In this exercise, your goal is putt the ball at a speed that if you do no make the putt -you are still trying to make the putt, choosing a good line- that the ball ends up inside a 3 foot circle. Do not concentrate on "pure distance", concentrate on the speed required. In other words, you realize that a 20 foot putt uphill most be struck firmer than a downhill putt of the same length, thus, distance is not a factor to concentrate on, but the speed to allow the ball stop somewhere around the hole. AS FAR AS MECHANICS, ONLY CONCENTRATE ON TWO THINGS: KEEP YOUR GRIP PRESSURE LIGHT AND KEEP YOUR HEAD STILL... YOU'LL BE SURPRISED ON HOW MUCH THIS 10 MINUTE EXERCISE WILL HELP YOU DURING YOUR ROUND. Now, lets try something else for your full swing. Start start this exercise with a short club, not more than an 8 iron. Get a small basket of balls, maybe 40 balls. Loosen up and swing the club a few times, just brushing the grass, back and forth, no stopping, no mechanical thoughts, just making a nice pass and making an effort on just brushing the top of the grass, no divots.... For your first 10 balls, place the ball on a tee, maybe 3/4" high, and just make nice, smooth swings, as rhythmical as you can, trying to hit the ball maybe with 50% of your power; for the next 10 balls, place the tee a little farther down, maybe 1/2" high and do the same, but increase the speed to about 60%; swing at the next 10 balls on a tee about 1/4" off the ground and with about 70% of your total speed... you are only trying to make good, solid contact at the bottom of the swing.... Now, the last 10 balls: ... select 5, and hit them, still with your short iron, without a tee at about 80% of your speed. If you have worked on your speed and rhythm, you should be able to notice the difference in distances and feel the solid contact with the ball; for the last five; use your favorite fairway wood, teeing up the ball about 1/2" off the ground, and making a swing at only about 80% of your total speed. As you start your round, you should not try to "go all out" and swing 100%, start with swings no faster than 80% and increase to no more than 90%.... I guarantee you that if you do this your first few spring rounds, you'll be pleasantly surprised... a few rounds with scores better that you are used to... and you might never try to swing at 100% ever again!