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Mystery solved Posted: Thursday May 15, 2003 10:08 AM
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. Wednesday, May 14 KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The mailbag is bulging with guesses about what went wrong with my swing a couple of weeks ago in Savannah. According to various readers, I hit 99 consecutive bad shots on the practice range at Crosswinds for 99 different reasons. "You were standing too close to the ball," writes a man from Arkansas. "It's your rhythm, man!" counters an expert from Texas. No, it's not, says a fellow from Milwaukee: "Out-to-in swing going back, too much in-to-out coming down." Frankly, I'm amazed at how many of you took the time to analyze my dysfunction. I credit the flood of e-mails to my offer of a prize to the first reader who correctly diagnosed my latest meltdown. (The prize was a copy of Golf's Greatest Eighteen, the new book edited by my pal David Mackintosh , golf writer for the Buenos Aires Herald.) Either that, or you want me to find my swing, once and for all, so you can go back to reading conventional whodunits. In any case, you've rounded up the usual suspects. "Your fault was bad posture," writes Adam Ross of Nashville, Tenn. "You were hunched over the ball." "Loose grip," suggests Ed Walsh of Miami . "You must have had your glove on too tight," offers Marc Garcia of Lansing, Mich. "As a result, your shots were veering left and, in trying to compensate, your shoe laces were getting loose, causing all sorts of swing havoc." "You let your right elbow fly instead of keeping it tucked," says Mike Conroy of Torch Lake Township, Mich. "Maybe you were hitting into the sun," writes Rickie Geiger of Powder Springs, Ga. I even got advice from Jason Shanks of Dallas . I didn't read it, though, because ... well, because his name spooked me. And then there's the unique analysis of Mike Nath from Sandusky, Ohio : "Obviously, you had new thong underwear that did not break in for the first 99 shots. Once it did, you were able to hit down and through the ball." Sorry, Mike. I'm a boxers guy. Most of your guesses were astute. My problem could have been -- and often is -- my grip, my ball position, my spine angle, my alignment, my weight shift, my shoulder plane, my shoulder turn or my swing tempo. But only a few of you caught my hint. "I've written about it before," I wrote. "I've even carried around an inexpensive piece of common hardware to practice with." So the winner, if there is one, will be someone walking the aisles at Home Depot. Such as Ken Ige of Kailua, Hawaii , who writes, "You were not exploiting your naturally wide arc. The hardware is a 2-by-6 board." Or sawdust-covered Dan Warner of Cambridge, Mass. , who writes, "The piece of hardware is a board to help you swing from the inside. I've dented many a wooden board the last few years trying to stop coming over the top." Great answers, Ken and Dan. But wrong. I couldn't possibly squeeze a plank into my golf bag. As it is, I barely have room for my ball retriever, small-limb lopper and barbecue tongs. David Webb of New York thinks the answer is in the tools department. "John carries around a piece of string!" he shouts from the other side of the shelves. "The flaw is, he was not keeping the shaft moving along the target line after impact!" Suddenly at my elbow is Steve Gerold of Sandusky, Ohio , who asks, "Were you by any chance using a carpenter's string to straighten out your shots?" And here, rushing up the aisle, comes Justin G. of Portland, Ore. "You have had problems in the past taking the club away too much to the outside," Justin gasps. "You have used carpenter's string to correct the problem." I do use carpenter's string! When I practice, I lay it on the ground to indicate my target line. When I play, I use it to find my way back to the fairway from the deep woods. In Savannah, however, the string was not the thing. It comes down to two finalists. The runner-up -- who, I'm afraid, will have to buy his own copy of Golf's Greatest Eighteen -- is Matt Schmidt of Troy, Mich. "I think you were casting the club," he writes, "throwing the clubhead in front of your hands. I suffer from said affliction, and bladed wedges are not as unfamiliar as I'd like." You're right, Matt. You are so very right. Unfortunately, by the time you got to Home Depot, the store was closed. I was inside, behind locked doors, handing a 3-foot-by-4-foot cardboard facsimile of the book to Eric Friese of Charlotte, N.C. Here is Eric's winning entry: "The problem you were having with your swing? I'm guessing it had to do with your left wrist breaking down too early, thus causing the pulled/bladed shot. You corrected it by strapping a ruler to your left forearm/wrist to keep it firm through impact." Eric's diagnosis is right on. The only thing he got wrong was the hardware. I don't travel with a ruler -- unless you count my wife -- but I sometimes carry a lightweight metal rod. (I stick the rod in the butt end of a club. It extends past my left hip, preventing me from casting the club on the follow-through.) I didn't have the rod in Savannah, but I remembered it when I was 99 balls into my 100-ball workout. I then took several practice swings, pretending there was a rod on my hip. That did the trick. Shot No. 100 was perfect. Anyway, Eric wins the book. In addition, I am offering him a position on the Mats Only teaching staff: Director of Instruction, Nebraska and Dakotas Division. I hope he's willing to relocate. Watch this space for another installment of Mats Only. To send John Garrity advice, share your experiences, or suggest a driving range, click here.
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