Wednesday, June 16

NEW YORK CITY -- The last time I arrived at a driving range in a taxi I was in Tokyo, where unfamiliar traffic patterns and the menace of Godzilla discouraged the use of a rental car. Manhattan is equally awkward to navigate with a golf bag, so I hailed a cab yesterday evening and tossed the clubs in the trunk. "Chelsea Piers Driving Range," I told the driver.

Fifteen minutes later, when I rolled my travel bag into the ground-floor reception area of the Chelsea Piers Golf Club, I was met by a five-foot-high blowup of a book cover. Then I was met by the somewhat taller left-handed golfer whose elegant swing was pictured on the cover -- John Novosel Jr. -- and by his father, whose name escapes me. The elder Novosel, of course, is co-author of Tour Tempo: Golf's Last Secret Finally Revealed.

"This must be the place," I said.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must state here and now that I am the other author of Tour Tempo, and I was at Chelsea Piers to kick off a one-day, one-coast promotion tour sponsored by Doubleday Books and SI.com. That meant I would only get to hit about 25 balls over three hours, which I found depressing. On the other hand, I had promotional hats and polo shirts to hand out, and Doubleday's Elizabeth Mackey had brought a carton of free books for the range rats. The atmosphere was festive.

The highlight of the evening was a visit by the Golf Channel's Adam Barr, who brought a camera crew and an open mind. "My swing is the stuff of legends," Adam said, warming up with a few shots off a mat on the fourth tier of the range.

Adam's swing is, indeed, memorable. The clubhead, looking like it weighs 50 pounds, dips below his left shoulder at the top of the backswing and then plunges past his beltline on the follow-through.

"For years I've been seeing the clubhead out of my left eye," he admitted, swatting another ball toward a blinding sun perched a few degrees above the Hudson River.

I had to chuckle. I, too, used to see the clubhead in my peripheral vision at the top of the backswing. I solved the problem by buying an eye patch. Anyway, the two Novosels videotaped Adam's swing and did some quick calculations on a laptop computer. They then dialed up the 27/9 Tour Tempo audio track on their portable iPod console and had Adam hit some 9-irons to the rhythm of the guide tones. (Beep .... chirp-chirp.)

Predictably, swinging to the proper tempo shortened Adam's backswing slightly and eliminated the jerky, lunging downstroke for which he is renowned. The position of his body at impact was classic (we checked this on the video); his hands led the clubhead through the ball with his weight firmly established over the axis of his left foot. The shots themselves were terrific -- high and straight with a little draw. "That felt wonderful," he said after one gem. "That felt great," he said after another. He then hit a shot that was perfect in most aspects but was launched about 20 yards left of the target flag, toward the safety netting.

"Oh, you can still pull the ball?" Adam turned to us in mock disgust. "That's it, I'm out of here."

Actually, he stayed for more than an hour. He would have stayed longer, but he had to catch a train back to Southampton, where he is spending the week. (Something to do with a tournament at Shinnecock.) Adam's version of the experience aired on the Golf Channel Tuesday, and will be repeated as necessary.

	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:

"As a golfer, I really think you're on to something," Adam told the Novosels. "I just wonder what the 'low and slow' establishment is going to think of this book."

After Adam and his crew left, I got to hit a few balls. John Jr. hit some, too, including about a dozen from the right side with a motion as beautiful as his natural lefty swing. Mostly, though, we autographed books, handed out free stuff, and chatted with the Chelsea Piers teaching pros, who popped out of the elevator between lessons to express their enthusiasm for the book. Marty Nowicki, a PGA teaching pro who has been working at the Piers for six weeks, said, "It's so great to see someone come out with something original about the golf swing."

Afterward, when the taxi carrying the Novosels and me back to our respective hotels got caught in the theater traffic west of Broadway, I got a brainstorm. "I know what we should do next! Tour Tempo: The Musical!" John Jr. laughed. "That has to be the last line of your next column."

No, the rest of this column will be used to announce the latest Mats Only contest, called, "Cure Our Casting Problem." To enter, simply e-mail a list of the actors who you think should play the lead roles in the Tour Tempo musical, along with your reasons for choosing them. (The very tall dancer/director Tommy Tune is an obvious choice to play me, but he's, what, 70? Pick somebody young enough to play me as a youthful, vigorous, magnetic man of 57.)

The other roles to be cast are John Novosel, "a former college football center with a Frankenstein-style golf laboratory in his Leawood, Ks., garage"; his golf pro son John Jr., who has a show-stopping dance number in which he hits rubber golf balls into the audience while ascending a giant staircase lined with showgirls; and Adam Barr, "a television idol who dreams of one day taking his homemade swing onto the PGA Tour." First prize: a free copy of Tour Tempo.

"Did you remember to give the cab driver a tip?" my wife asked me when I called her from the hotel.

"Sure," I said. "I told him to put his left thumb on top of the shaft to prevent a hook."

Watch this space for another installment of Mats Only.