Author: George Promenschenkel

It’s dream season here in Ohio. By that I mean the only golf we’re getting to play right now is in our dreams. But it’s also close enough to spring (just over a month away) that we can start thinking about playing. One of these days, the snow is going to melt and the mercury’s going to rise into the 40s, 50s, and (dare we hope?) 60s.

Unlike many years when it’s possible to play at least a few times during the winter, it just hasn’t worked out this year (my wife and I even left the clubs at home on a weekend trip to Florida last month… What were we thinking?). Most of the warmer, dry days this winter have fallen during the work week. On the one or two weekend days that have been playable, I’ve been tied up with other commitments. So, needless to say, now is the winter of my discontent.

Continue reading “The Dream Season”

Golf is often called the most frustrating of sports. There are layers after layers of complexity to learn. Each time we think we’ve got it down, something new rears its head.

When we begin to play, most of us struggle to hit the ball at all, let alone hit it where we want to. After awhile we learn to advance the ball to the green without too much trouble along the way. Sure we still hit tee shots into the woods and approach shots into the water, but eventually we reach the green. But then there are all those individual skills to acquire around the green that help us shave strokes off our usual round. We have to learn to stop the ball on the green, to get it out of a bunker, to chip it close from a tight lie, to pitch it reasonably close from the lettuce, to hit it high and have it land soft, to hit it low so it runs, to get the speed of a putt right&ellip; Suffice it to say, golf ain’t easy.

For those of us in colder climes, winter might well be the most frustrating time of year. But when it comes to playing the game, we’ve probably all had rounds where our game has so deserted us that we’re ready to quit on the spot, to wrap every club around the nearest tree and throw the bag in pond.

That’s our topic today: those golf shots that afflict us and sometimes make us to contemplate taking up another sport, any other sport. The best way to cure these maladies is to see a PGA professional. But barring that, I offer some totally unauthoritative swing band-aids that I’ve used from time to time. Use them at your own risk.

Continue reading “The Five Most Frustrating Shots in Golf”

2008 is almost here. What will it hold for the world of golf?

I put that question to a few friends and came up with a couple ideas of my own. The farthest fetched prediction: one friend again predicted that this would be the year he scores a hole in one. He was there when I had mine two years ago, so I’m rooting for him. Of course, he’s been predicting the same thing for several years now.

Continue reading “Five Fearless Predictions for ’08”