Champions
of our time

Champion defined.
- 18 majors
- 78 victories

Charge defined.
- 2 majors
- 88 victories
- 331 weeks as #1

Creativity and
imagination defined.
- 5 majors
- 62 victories

Golfer defined.
- Grand slam
- Augusta founder
- Amateur

The Majors

World championship defined.
- The Grand and Old
- Everyone invited

Major championship defined.
Most consistently producing
true champions.

fredag, april 22, 2005

Dancing Rabbit Golf Club

Dancing Rabbit Golf Club - The Legend Page
"Built upon the ancestral lands of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Dancing Rabbit Golf Club is a celebration of their rich culture, as well as their perseverance."

Amazing story about a golf course managed by native american indians. Azalea course has had several Golf Magazine U.S. top 100 awards. Designed by Tom Fazio and Jerry Pate.

Bobby Jones Swing

Bobby Jones Swing
Pretty amazing footage of Bobby Jones swing. Taken by Bernie Baymillers father when his dad worked for Spalding back in the 1940's. Don't miss the impact position.

onsdag, april 20, 2005

On women being invited to mens tourmaments

DN - Sport - Goosen mot att kvinnor får frikort

Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter today reports that Retief Goosen is against women being invited to mens tournaments. (Here we do again ;-) Basically the same argumentation as Vijay Singh had last year. His idea is basically:
  • Handing out invitations to popular female golfers is wrong
  • If they qualify, it's perfectly ok that they participate
  • It is fine to compete with women in special tournaments, such as the one he was involved in earlier this year.
This is a discussion that stirs up a lot of emotion. Personally I think that Goosen is right, but that Vijay was only basically right. Reason: It was time that such a great player as Annika got a chance. The world wanted it to happen. Too many years had passed since someone else did it. I also have a personal reason that most certainly affects my standpoint: Seeing Annika at Colonial was for me the single reason I rediscovered golf again & started playing after basically holding up for five years. With that in mind, I think I am entitled to have my positive opinion about Annikas participation, regardless of what others may think.

Annika did reasonalby well. She was not far from making the cut and beat several men. Not bad considering the huge media attention and enormous pressure she had to take heading into the event.

Finally a prediction: The next big story in this chapter will probably be Annika qualifying for The Open Championship or Michelle Wie qualifying for U.S. Open.

I do think that any woman will have success playing with the men until they manage to get their clubhead speed up. Main difference is that women are generally not able to spin the ball as much as needed to make it bite on the fast greens on the mens tours. Annika has indirectly stated this on numerous occations.

For this reason I think that The Open Championship is the most likely venue where a longhitter woman would stand a chance. On that venue the greens do not seem to be as fast as on the Masters or the U.S. Open - the challenge being more weighted to playing in the wind.

Still The Open Championship is not a benign challenge, and any woman playing there would face pretty brutal conditions - as the men do.

(I reserve the right to edit this post later on :-)

tisdag, april 19, 2005

Equipment (configuration)

I do think that having a set of golf clubs made for YOU is a good thing. I had a pretty bad experience spending 3-4 years with off-the-shelf equipment. When I eventually made it to see a clubfitter I found out that the lies were completely off and that the shafts were not correct for me - lengthwise or regarding stiffness.

It was not that the clubfitter "sold me" the idea of my clubs being off measure. It was a combination of seeing a good instructor and a clubfitter in the same time. I understood that I badly needed to do something - which I did.

It came out nicely. I am tall and my shafts are now extended by a full 1.25 inch. Thats A LOT. And the lie was adjusted by 4 degrees. Thats also A LOT.

Some of you reading this may say that's just too much. I don't know. So far my results have been really good. I am not saying that I will never go back to standard length clubs, though. It may happen any day. But for now I stick with it.

The really bad part of having clubs with incorrect lie is that the lie will cause your swing to change. Since I had clubheads 4 degrees flatter than I should, I eventually developed a very flat swing to accomodate that. My experience was that I could not change my swing until my clubs were altered.

So: If I change my swing significantly again, I might change my clubs too.

Equipment (brands)

I won't post any details regarding my equipment, brand-wise. I do have opinions, preferences and very dear pieces of equipment of all sorts, but I do not consider it an important part of the game itself.

My first year as a golfer I played with a half set. Did pretty good. I have to admit I currently have three sets that are pretty professional stuff. I'd sauy they are far above my skill level, which is sometimes more of an embarassment than an asset. Still I have spent more money on taking instruction than on getting equipment. I am proud of that & think it's something any golfer should do.

I guess the ideal would be to spend 10% on equipment, 60% on instruction and 30% on greenfees & memberships. In other words I do not consider it worthshile to talk about equipment until I am down to a solid scratch handicap. More or less.

Chuck Evans Golf - Here's What He (Homer Kelley) Had To Say:

NWG: What is the primary object in taking a golf lesson?

HK: I suppose it is to lower the handicap, shoot a better
score and look like a golfer.

NWG: Should that then be our yardstick or benchmark as
golfers?

HK: I think so; it's the satisfaction of the game. There is
no sense in developing a game that you don't like. You might as well
learn one that you like. That's the whole idea of the thing, it's not a
job.

Books worth reading

Instruction
  • Homer Kelley - The Golfing Machine. A catalog of components in a sensible golf swing. Each component has a number of variations. It is a heavy read and almost impossible to digest without access to an Authorized Instructor and/or video and other side information. Still a BEST BUY for the non-quitter.
  • Ben Hogan - Five lessons. Even though there are at least five pretty severe errors in the book. I might list them here somewhere. In short, Hogan did not play the ball the way he thought he did.
  • Dave Pelz - Short Game Bible. The interesting stuff is the PEI, the shortgame handicap and his scientific approach. That is only 5% of the book. I do not think the other 95% is worth that much. The clock swing is often referred to as a marvel. But it is not. While Homer Kelleys pressure point approach is.
Biographies
  • Davis Love III - Every shot i take. A good read. Recommended.

söndag, april 17, 2005

Videos

Instruction videos
  • Ben Doyle: How to build a G.O.L.F. game
  • Brian Manzella: Confessions of a former flipper
  • Jim McLean: Ben Hogan, The Golf Swing
Tournament videos
  • 1986 Masters Tournament
  • 2004 Masters Tournament