Weightshift

Without doubt: playing safe. You're faced with an awkward shot. You're in deep grass or have a tree problem or whatever. You've played remarkably well up until now. You have studied and practised getting-out-of-trouble shots in Pelz' Short Game Bible. You holed out from the fairway on the previous hole. You've seen the pros play shots like this from much tougher lies. If you get on the green from here, you'll probably win the club championship. Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera. A simple chip back towards the fairway will almost guarantee you a perfect lie - the safe play. Without doubt: the toughest shot in golf is to play safe.

Well said!

By clicking on the slider bar by the smallest amounts, it appears that you start the downswing with your left shoulder moving out towards the ball which is classic OTT for a slice. Many do this believing that the club has to go forward towards the target, where in fact the hands must go down (towards the right toe) and out (towards the ball). These two vectors combine to send the ball to the target. [Go to www.lynnblakegolf.com , join (it's free) go to the "gallery" and download the Tomasello video file "Chapter 6 - Alignments" (13304 KB) - and you'll see what I mean.] Summarizing what Tom Tomasello says, he talks of the 3 dimensions (1) Up and Down, (2) Forward towards the target and its opposite Backward, and (3) standing In from the ball, i.e. the ball is Out from you. So using these terms we can now describe movement in the golf swing. The takeaway consists of moving the club In and Backward. One the right elbow folds the club goes Up. Altogether the club has gone In, Backward and Up. Slicers then try to move the club forward from the top by moving the right shoulder which causes the clubhead to cross the line - OTT. From the top, the two moves must be Down and Out - and these two forces combine to send the ball Forward to the target. So, at the top of your swing the hands must go Down and Out. Think of the right shoulder going down and under the left. The left shoulder must not move towards the target. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that. I haven't for example mentioned the support of the lower body in the downswing, etc. Hope this helps.

I may not be qualified to answer with my current handicap, but... does this pause occur with shorter swings? Theoretically there is a pause at the top in every golf swing, just as the shaft changes direction, but there shouldn't be a pause elsewhere, as good golfers start their downswings with their lower bodies before completion of the backswing. Are you perhaps losing your grip at the top somewhat, and regripping (a fatal move) - and sensing this as a pause? Ideally you should feel the drag/lag of the clubhead at the top of the backswing, wherever "top" is, in your righthand index finger (righthander) and as the shaft changes direction you should feel even more lag, like as if you are pulling an arrow out of a quiver, which must be sustained through impact. So if you feel this lag continuously any pause will be minimal.

I'm thinking of taking out a membership next year as it would save me $500 just playing twice a week, April through September. It's a 45 minute drive from where I live and out of town too, so all the rush hour trafic is in the opposite direction. I've been playing there most of this season and they are by far the most friendly people I've met in a long time. The course is not long at 5133 yards (par-70) but very tight and demanding with 100' steep ravines and large elevation changes. They have lots of water and so the course is always green, one of the reasons I went there in the first place, with the drought we've had this summer. I've been condemned to power carts since hip replacement surgery and a number of subsequent dislocations needing ER visits, but I'm hoping I'll get the all clear to walk again at my December meeting with the surgeon. So if I were able to walk again I'd save considerably more, which would be very good news, limited as I am by this slim pension. My question is really: Do members tire of playing the home course over and over again? Already I know which clubs to play on certain holes, and am getting more and more feel for these tricky greens. I know which greens I can go for under different weather conditions. I've played in the rain, in the baking heat, in the wind, even in near gale force winds. I know which holes are prudent to lay up on, and where to hit the ball too, to make the next shot easier - not to say that I can always accomplish those goals.

Some people here seem to have problems with views expressed by players with higher handicaps directed towards those with lower handicaps. Your thoughts?

I'm left eye dominant but don't think it makes any difference, for me, in putting. One little tip, from Tiger no less, I've found useful. When you have a short putt and can see the hole in your peripheral vision, close the left eye (for a right hander) and the nose then blocks the view of the hole.

Thanks for your replies. I tried playing yesterday without glassses at all - and played somewhat better for the most part, shooting an 86.

Try standing on ice or similiar slippery surface. Another way would be to stand with each foot on a separate bathroom scale and you'll see what I mean. Yeah, I made a mistake there. I was writing what I thought I was doing - but I was wrong. The putter head is directly below my eyes. I use a Dunlop Vista, Model 4 putter. The shorter the putt, the more I grip down on the shaft. I spread my feet in a wide stance and lock my legs by pushing back my knees - all to make sure that my lower body is imoveable - and then bend forward from the hips.

My golf swing starts with the feet, doesn't yours? There we obviously differ in style. My putter shaft is vertical, immediately below my eyes. It's a simple move: straight back, straight forward. Nothing could be simpler IMO.

Why would you do that? You can't compress the ball between the club and the grass, only against the clubface. If you want to hit it lower, ensure that the club stays below your waist on the followthrough - and/or use a less lofted club. I do that with all my irons, don't you? Why does that not surprise me.

I've also heard that this surgery makes night driving (driving a car not a golf club ) difficult. Is that your experience?

Maybe you are built physically different than me When I rock the triangle (of shoulders and arms) the putter has about 18" travel on either side of the ball before the putter starts coming inside, but those are extremes for me, as I rarely take the putter back more than 12". Well sure, alignment is important. If I align 18" away from the target a sweetspot true hit is not going to do any good. Let's be reasonable. An off-sweetspot hit will not only reduce distance, but it'll also influence direction. I don't hold the putter in a vice grip, it's loose in my hands, so the vibration of an off sweatspot hit is immediately felt in my hands.

My eyes are not what they used to be and I've been prescribed with "reading" glasses and "long distance" glasses (I'm old). While the former a great for looking at the ball, the latter are a must to see where it went. (No I'm not suggesting that I'm a loooong hitter ) I can see the ball reasonably well without glasses, but I just like to be courteous in watching were the balls of the other players in the group, go. I've been playing without glasses at all recently, but yesterday I played with the long distance ones - and played really poorly - and couldn't understand why. I was blaming it on all the lost balls (6) in the mountains of fall leaves, and the shivers I had between swings. It was so cold for the first few holes. Gladly, the season will be over soon - and I can go back to snooker where eyesight problems are not so severe. I hear that Cuba has excellent eye surgery prowess, maybe that's what I need Of course, bifocals would be good (for both golf and snooker). Anyone use them, or been to Cuba?

Yeah, I only play twice a week, and the season is almost over as it's getting far too cold to play. I was so cold playing yesterday, that I felt like 28 handicapper. More importantly, do you agree with what I said?