Category: Trap Five

With swings only a mother could love, the following players have made our list of the five goofiest swings in golf. While none of these swings looks quite right, they share one thing in common: they are repeatable. The golfers who employ(ed) them can repeat the train-wreck time and again.

Some important things are illustrated by the following players:

1. The game is about scoring, not aesthetics.
2. A repeatable motion is vital to success.
3. Golf is unique to each individual.
4. An outside-in takeaway followed by an inside-out swing path is shared by most good players.

So have a look at professional golf’s wackiest swings and see if you agree with my take.

Continue reading “Goofiest Swings”

As the 2005 PGA Tour season all but concludes this weekend with The Tour Championship, we look back at a year in review. What were the biggest stories this year? Can you remember them all? Have we?

In looking back, we also look forward to a 2006 that will bring us more of the same great stories (and, hopefully, less of the bad ones). We look forward to surprise winners, dominance by a select few (or one), exciting majors, long putts, hole-outs from the sand, Michelle Wie, and much, much more. This year, Eight things stood out to us, and five made the cut into our top 5.

Continue reading “The Biggest Stories of 2005”

Last week, we examined five ways to speed up play. This week, we’re continuing the series with the second of two parts on picking up the pace.

As we said last week, a round of golf should not take five hours to complete, despite what you may tell your significant others. This week’s top five list: five more ways to speed up play.

Continue reading “Speeding Up Play, Part 2 of 2”

Rory Sabbatini was vilified this year for putting on a display of intolerance towards the slow play of a fellow PGA Tour player. This site even labeled him Jackass of the Week for his rude behavior towards Ben Crane, a notoriously slow player.

Who knows how Rory would have behaved playing behind that same dreadful foursome playing ahead of you every Saturday. Would he have driven over their heads? Hit onto the green while they were putting out? Or just skipped the hole and moved in front of them?

A round of golf should not take five hours to complete, despite what you may tell your significant others. This week’s top five list: the top five ways to speed up play. In fact, it’s part one of two.

Continue reading “Speeding Up Play, Part 1 of 2”

Dictionary.com defines gamesmanship as:

The use in a sport or game of aggressive, often dubious tactics, such as psychological intimidation or disruption of concentration, to gain an advantage over one’s opponent.

The singles matches in the Presidents Cup take place tomorrow, while the Seve Trophy is being contested in Europe. The Seve Trophy is named after one of the greatest gamesmen of all time: Severiano Ballesteros. Ballesteros was (in)famous for developing a rather severe cough during past Ryder Cups.

Gamesmanship, though not covered by the rules except in rare cases (i.e. extremely poor etiquette can earn a disqualification and giving wrong information can earn penalties), skirts the boundaries of decent human behavior and “win at all costs” behavior.

Furthermore, gamesmanship can backfire, stoking the competitive fire of your opponent. I typically laugh off any attempts at gamesmanship, personally, and vow even more to beat the snot out of the guy who would be so foolish as to try a lame little trick.

Continue reading “Gamesmanship”

The Rules of Golf are not terribly complex. Complexity is naturally reserved for the Decisions on the Rules of Golf! </sarcasm> Jesting aside, the rules are fairly simple so long as some basic concepts are understood. Those basic concepts include what to do when your ball finds a few different areas (hazards, ground under repair, the green, “through the green,” etc.), the idea and definitions of equity, fairness, and intent, and the pervading rule to play the ball as it lies.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who insist that they’re playing “golf” despite not playing by the rules of golf. Let’s look at some of the more misunderstood rules of the game we love so much.

Continue reading “Misunderstood Rules”

Everyone would love to shave strokes off their score. 18 handicappers want to be 15 handicappers, 15 handicappers want to get down to 12, and two handicappers want to be scratch. On the PGA Tour, saving one stroke per round can move a player from 100th on the money list to 21st.

Continue reading “Shaving Strokes”

Golf is a great game that affords – if you’re bad enough – a near infinite number of betting possibilities. 😉 This week we’re going to have a look at the top five alternatives to standard old stroke or match play. Many of the games are betting games, but some of the formats are used in tournaments. The International, on the PGA Tour, uses the Modified Stableford format as its scoring method.

What betting game do you play most commonly? What is your favorite? What should have been on the list, but isn’t? Leave a comment below (at the end of the column) or post in our forum.

Continue reading “Betting Games”

Every golfer has endured a slump or two – days or weeks when your game just isn’t what it could be. For the pros, these slumps produce missed cuts (or T2s at majors if his name is Tiger Woods). For amateurs, these slumps produce lost bets, frustration, and – in some cases – humiliation. Many vow to quit the game during prolonged slumps (and a few even follow through).

Here then are my list of the top five ways to get yourself out of a slump. They’re tried and true methods, and some may even be able to work their way into your regular practice routine.

Continue reading “Breaking Out of a Slump”