|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
A virtual golf lesson
Sports Illustrated senior writer John Garrity was a 42-year-old eight 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. Sunday, Nov. 26 KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- My usual ratio of practice to play was altered recently when I joined my Golf Plus colleagues at an "off-site" at Reynolds Plantation, the Georgia golf resort. We played six rounds in four days on four courses, and I -- more accustomed to six rounds in four months -- felt like the entire world was suddenly composed of numbered linear lots. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful week. I hit the ball pretty well and suffered no meltdowns. My two swings held up. Not that all those golf holes didn't expose a few problem areas. My sand play remained weak. At the urging of my West Coast swingmeister, I have been trying to throw copious amounts of sand onto the green along with the ball. I am succeeding at that, but I feel like a steam shovel, and the bunker looks like a grenade went off in it. Fortunately, I only hit a handful of greenside bunkers. And I didn't blade any shots over the green for double bogey. My second problem area was late-in-the-day putting. I rolled the ball quite well in the morning rounds, but I went brain-dead after lunch, mistaking uphill from downhill and right from left. I missed several short putts in this condition and convinced myself that it was due to fatigue. (On the other hand, my driving improved the more I played each day; I sprayed my tee shots for the first few holes and then fell into a nice rut of long, accurate draws.) But if I showed one glaring weakness in Georgia, it was the shot from a sidehill lie with the ball above my feet. At least twice a round my ball found a hillside that forced me to take a stance with the ball opposite my knees. I mishit every one of these shots, chunking the ball or hitting it off the toe. When I got home at the end of the week, I ran to my computer and fired off an e-mail to Rob Stanger, hoping he could fix the problem overnight with an e-lesson. "Hey, John, you are really testing my teaching ability now," he promptly e-mailed back from California. "What's next, blindfolding me?" But he went on: "You kept chunking it off the sidehill because you were choking down on the club, which makes the shaft angle steeper, therefore raising the heel and lowering the toe into the ground, causing the dig. (Ideally we want to have the bottom of the club flat against the slope.) "Yeah, I know what most teachers say about sidehill lies -- stand taller and choke down on the club. My approach is a little different. 1) I prefer to play a club or two less than what my yardage indicates; with the ball above my feet, the ball will travel farther than normal. Also, the shorter shaft will make it easier to catch the ball cleanly. 2) I prefer to play the ball around the center of my stance or at the low point of the arc, which tends to be farther back as a result of the elevated ground. (Make a practice swing in the area that matches the slope your ball is on and pay close attention to where your club is contacting the ground; then make sure the ball is positioned at that "low point.") 3) Your alignment can remain closer to the target line; you won't need to aim as far right. With the ball in the middle of your stance, the clubface will contact the ball earlier than normal with a slightly open face, helping the ball come out relatively straight. 4) Feel like you're swinging with the slope and take the speed out of your swing. Keep it steady like a pendulum." Rob added a note about course management. "I don't know if I've shared my 'light-system method' with you yet, but this shot would be a 'yellow light' (proceed with caution). Look for an area in front of the green to position your yellow-light shot and then trust your supernatural chipping and putting skills to save par. Most golfers play every shot as though it were a green light (all systems go, take dead aim at the flag), but the smart golfer eliminates any possibility of a big number." He summed up: "Those are my thoughts on your dilemma. Give 'em a try. But I would prefer we get together and address this in person so I can have the use of my eyes." Alas, the cold Kansas City weather has prevented me from trying out Rob's e-mailed advice. As soon as this turkey is thawed -- that would be me -- I will report on the results of my first sidehill practice session. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of e-mailing Brian Mogg at the Leadbetter Academy to get his take on this problem shot. Who knows? I might be able to put together an entire golf instruction book before these guys figure out what I'm doing.
Watch this space for another installment of Mats Only. To send John Garrity advice, share your experiences, or suggest a driving range, click here.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
