Sports Illustrated senior writer John Garrity was a 42-year-old 8-handicapper when he suddenly lost his swing. Since December 1989 he has been looking for it -- a modern-day Odysseus adrift on the troubled waters of swing theory. As Garrity travels the world reporting on golf, he visits as many driving ranges as he can, avoiding the dreaded "mats only" ranges that prevent him from teeing it up.

Saturday, April 17

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- My recent columns about flexibility have generated a lot of mail, most of it seeking practical information on how to restore suppleness to the weekend golfer.

"I saw Roger Fredericks on the Golf Channel," writes John Suess of Milwaukee. "What specific thigh exercises does he advocate to help the turn and save the hip?"

Answer: I don't know. Roger told me that the hips are very important in golf, but he didn't tell me how the hips relate to the thighs. (I'm sure there are some tendons or ligaments that connect them, but my knowledge of anatomy is shaky. See my unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, "Stretchy Things in the Leg.")

Another e-mail, from Paul Oliver of Houston, asks if I 1) have ever had trouble with my backswing getting too flat at the top, or 2) had difficulty getting my lead shoulder behind the ball for maximum coiling on the backswing. "If so," he asks, "any recommended drills, stretches or incantations?"

No to the first, yes to the second. My backswing is so distressingly upright that swing coach Brian Mogg once had me hit rubber golf balls with a clubhead attached to a flagstick. (The seven-foot shaft forced me to swing more around my body.) So nobody has ever accused me of being laid off at the top. But yeah, it was my recent inability to make more than a 70-degree shoulder turn that led me to Fredericks in the first place. Virtually all the exercises he assigned me are designed to loosen me up in this area, even the ones that seem to focus on the toes or the hairless portions of my kneecaps. As for incantations, I guess John Daly's "grip it and rip it" is still the best.

"Okay, John, what gives?" asks an annoyed Mike Serio of Evanston, Ill. "You go on about how great these exercises are and you don't tell us what they are. Hey, Lama, 'How about a little something for the effort' and filling us in? I am 42 and not exactly getting any longer."

	MAILBAG John Garrity will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in Mats Only. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

We're getting into proprietary information here, Mike. Fredericks showed me the exercises in California and then gave me some photocopied instructions to take home with me. I personally have nothing to offer you but my testimonial -- "In seven weeks Roger Fredericks transformed me into a human slinky and added 3.7 yards to my putts" -- and even if I had the material in publishable form I would be afraid to post it. I don't want some over-stretched Too-loose Lautrec suing me because his shirts no longer cover his tan lines.

Fortunately, I can pass the buck. Fredericks has a Web site, http://www.roger4par.com/. Go there, Mike, and you will find a brief summary of his Total Golf Flexibility Program and a sales counter packed with his golf fitness videos, including the riveting Abs for Golfers.

Then there's this e-mail, which I made up: "Dear Fruitcake: You wrote that your improved flexibility caused some problems with your golf swing. What problems? And what did you do about them?"

Good question. For a week or two, while my shoulder turn was in transition, I made swings that were shorter than they needed to be or longer than I expected them to be, causing me to complete my body swing while my arm swing was still engaged in foreplay. Put another way, I wasn't quite sure where my new backswing ended. I was looser all right, but I felt like I was driving on a dangerous mountain road that had recently had the guardrails removed. Fortunately, in a zipper pocket of my golf bag I had just the tool to deal with this problem -- an MP3 player with button earphones.

Which leads to our final letter, from Jerry Stone of Cape Girardeau, Mo. "In 2001," he writes, "you wrote about a swing tempo teacher, John Novosel, who really improved your game. I was wondering if you still use his method and how your swing is holding up."

Funny that you should ask, Jerry. Novosel and I are co-authors of Tour Tempo, a new book from Doubleday. The March issue of Travel & Leisure Golf has a wonderful article by John Paul Newport about Novosel's breakthrough research, and the current issue of Golf for Women excerpts two chapters of our tome (which is modestly subtitled "GOLF'S LAST SECRET FINALLY REVEALED"). Tour Tempo is the first book inspired by my Mats Only columns, so I intend to plug it shamelessly in the weeks ahead. For now, I'll simply mention that the T&LG story sent Tour Tempo to No. 1 on the Amazon.com sports book list and to No. 42 on its main best-seller list. And that was a month before books were scheduled to hit the stores.

So here's an exercise for you. Go to Borders, Barnes and Noble or your favorite independent book store. Stand in front of the help desk with your spine straight and your arms hanging loosely at your side. Breathe deeply, then exhale. Then ask, in a clear, confident voice, if they have any books about tempo in the golf swing.

Repeat as necessary. 

Watch this space for another installment of Mats Only.