|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Battling the wind in Hawaii
Posted: Tuesday February 01, 2000 05:30 PM
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. January 27, 2000 KOHALA COAST, Hawaii -- Given where I often practice -- at commercial driving ranges with gravel parking lots and signs advertising "Jungle Golf" -- I'm rarely interrupted by Jack Nicklaus. But today, as I was loosening up on the range at the Mauna Lani Resort, the Golden Bear stopped behind me in a golf cart. There were only three of us on the wind-whipped range -- myself, fellow golf scribe Dave Shedloski and Jack's regular caddie, Scott Lubin. We were swaying, stumbling and laughing in a steady 40-mph wind that gusted to 50 or 60. Jack, who had just finished a Senior Skins Game practice round with Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Tom Watson, had to shout to be heard. "It was hilarious!" he yelled. "You'd putt to the hole and the ball would blow all the way back to your feet! I hit three drivers to reach the 10th green!" It did me good to hear the Golfer of the 20th Century chuckle about the conditions. I've always had a bad attitude about playing in high winds. At 6'7", I tend to bow like wheat. My naturally high shots surf and balloon, and I can't hold a putter steady to save my life. At 40 mph, I start to worry about whiffing. But not today. Today I was really up for wind golf -- partly to test my swing changes, partly to remind myself that golf is play, not an outdoor version of the Graduate Record Exam. Our rounds turned out to be as funny as Jack's. The flagsticks on most holes were bent almost parallel to the ground. Blowing sand stung our faces. On the first hole, my 30-foot downhill putt from the back of the green struggled to go 20 feet; it then rolled back uphill. On another hole I could not replace my marked ball -- it kept rolling away -- until the other players allowed me to tap it down with my putter. But I probably laughed the hardest when I tried to address a tee shot into the wind; as a super-strong gust hit me, the shadows of my playing partners slid back about five feet. Obviously, conventional golf shots were of no use. Phil Stambaugh, a Senior PGA Tour media official, hit driver off one tee. His ball flew vigorously up the right side of the fairway, started to rise, and then hit an invisible curtain about 150 yards out. The ball came back like a bad check, landing in the rough a mere 90 yards off the tee. To keep the ball under the gale, I had to play a shot I didn't have a year ago -- a punch three-iron. I choked down on the grip, moved my weight over my left foot, and set my hands well forward and low -- almost on my left knee. I then made a short swing -- sort of a big chipping action -- turning my whole upper body and returning the club to the ball with my wrist cock maintained. Damned if the ball didn't go straight and hard, tunneling through the wind. I didn't pace off any of these three-irons, but three of them got me to the edge of the 10th green, and that's the par-5 where Nicklaus needed three drivers. I estimate 175 yards a pop. Best of all, I managed to keep those low, running three-irons in the fairways and out of the lava. It turned out to be a great day for golf. And since I spent most of the afternoon hitting unconventional shots, I don't think it will hurt my regular swing at all. But I won't know that until it stops blowing, will I? January 29 KOHALA COAST, Hawaii -- They played the Senior Skins today, and ESPN had a fellow walking the course with a portable anemometer, one of those wind gauges that looks like four soup spoons spinning on top of a pole. The readings appeared on a graphic in the corner of the TV screen, and all day long it read about 7 mph. What a bore. January 30 HILO, Hawaii -- My wife and I drove around the Big Island today, stopping in cloudy Hilo to look at the Hilo Municipal Golf Course. Hilo has a very nice mats-only driving range with very low prices -- $2.50 for a bucket of balls. While Pat read a paperback in the car, I grabbed my clubs and hit a bucket of balls in my street shoes. (How the bucket got in my street shoes I'll never know, yadda, yadda ...) I hit the ball great. I mean, great. If you were to ask me today, I'd say that my search for my lost swing has ended, 10 years after it started.
It took Odysseus a long time to get home, too. Ten years, in fact.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
