You boys are AMAZING!!! Y'all gotta love golf MORE than the dude hittin' the shots. This info is off the shingle good. One thing about The Machine is you can learn to strike a golf ball and control it. But y'all's stuff is about how to play think and score. I'd love the chance to play a round of golf with y'all.
Everyone talked about what detail Hogan used when preparing to play a golf course. Particularly at Carnoustie (right?). They didn't use "numbers" back then. What do you reckon those guys did?
I went to the course a week before the matchs and spend the time doing my own book and charting the greens. Last match on Sunday the guys are tied; seventeenth green, other player has made par and my man has 6 or 7' for birdie and the lead. I'm standing over at he side of the green; both teams are there because it is the last match//(the Cup has been won but if my man wins his match it will be the most points ever) My man asked me to look at the put, I don't move I just tell him the put is straight; everyone laughs; someone says you din't even look; I say I don't have to, its straight;;; My pro says well can I put it left centre, I like left centre. I said sure, left centre, right centre, whichever fits your eye///the puts straight.
He makes the put left centre and wins 1 up
You scare me . . . IN A GOOD WAY!
__________________
"In my experience, if you stay with the essentials you WILL build a repeatable swing undoubtedly. If you can master the Imperatives you have a champion" (Vikram).
The reason you can't sustain the lag is because you are so eager to make the club move fast (a reaction to the intent of "hitting it far"). So on a full shot you throw it away too early, which doesn't happen for your short chip. (bts)
You boys are AMAZING!!! Y'all gotta love golf MORE than the dude hittin' the shots. This info is off the shingle good. One thing about The Machine is you can learn to strike a golf ball and control it. But y'all's stuff is about how to play think and score. I'd love the chance to play a round of golf with y'all.
Everyone talked about what detail Hogan used when preparing to play a golf course. Particularly at Carnoustie (right?). They didn't use "numbers" back then. What do you reckon those guys did?
HB and OK thanks a ton for an education!
Bucket,
I think that they used a variety of methods. One trick is to use a landmark (tree, trap) and remember you hit a seven from there. Another is to spend more time on the course. It is still an advantage for the veterans to have played the tour courses alot, but not as much as it used to be. On your home course, you know (or should) about what the various par threes play. You have a normal club for normal conditions and adjust from there. Pros often know what they want to hit on a par three before they even get the numbers.
My guess would be that the talent for feeling a shot would have been more important and developed in successful players of a previous era. Alot of tour players still trust that ability close to the green. We have already talked about using intuition as one of the factors. Another factor would have been local caddies. These days every player has a traveling caddie. In the old days the caddies would likely have a great deal of experience on the particular course but not much knowledge about the player.
I think that modern architecture plays a role in the need for all the numbers. I see more sharp edges, forced carries, etc. in modern courses. At St. Andrews and other firm courses with open run-ups, the numbers are just framework for the shot. So much more feel is necessary to play the bounces. It's quite a contrast from business as usual target golf on the PGA Tour.
What do y'all see as the difference between a dude struggling to get on/stay on tour vs. the dudes that get it done?
Bucket,
The answer to getting it done or not is both very complicated and very simple. Simple answer is that the game is score. Nothing matters but the score. I'm sure you know somebody that doesn't look very good while he is winning all the money.
There are so many ways to stay on the Tour. Some guys just are not very consistent, but when the play good, they get paid. Whether they are mentally tough or just riding a wave of confidence, they get it done. Some guys are the opposite. They often get themselves in the hunt, but fall off at the end. They have to play well more weeks because of the prize structure.
The upper eschelon is the guys that play well often and get paid when they do.
Tiger Woods is the best player because he has the total package. The categories are: Power, Accuracy, Iron Game, Short game, Putting, Preparation, Management, Mental, Fitness, Strength, Desire, Record (concrete proof) etc. The only area Tiger sometimes lacks is accuracy off the tee. The other top players have similar skill sets. They all have great short games (VJ may be best given his putting). Some are shorter but more accurate.
As you go down the money list, you will find more things missing. Maybe he gives away shots around the green or gets mad (and lets it affect next shot). His bad shots may be infrequent but costly (penalties). He might not know how good he really is. He might have alot of these attributes but needs some help with alignments to go to the next level.
The more difficult the golf course, the easier it is to see who is really good and who's not. The "Bigger" a player's game is, the less he has to get out of it. Most guys have to be maximing their opportunities to reach the top of the leaderboard.
In general, no matter how good his long game, a top player will get better, relative to the field, the closer he gets to the hole.
You hear a lot of dudes talk about TARGET TARGET TARGET when they are hitting the ball. Then you hear a lot of dudes talk about PROCESS.
Some dudes say don't think about outcome and the target is outcome . . .
So what's the deal from y'all's perspective . . .
Is target a part of process or is it the process or should it be in the process?
Thanks!
B
Bucket,
Outcomes and targets. Targets are where we want the ball to go. Process is what we do to make the ball go to the target. Outcomes are all the noise. What this shot means. What my opponent thinks about it. How it affects my score. Whether or not I can make my birdie or par from there. What Johnny Miller is going to say. How the crowd will react. You don't really contol the outcome. You only control what you do (or not) and let the ball go. That's all you can do. I've read that Hogan used to wonder why people clapped: "How would they know what I was trying to do with the shot?" Hogan said he seldom hit more than a few shots in a given round just as he saw them, but it did not stop him from trying to hit exactly the shot he saw.
Might it be in the intention. The target is the target. 4.5 inches round. Some of us measure our worth as golfers (not people) by our ability to make the 1.68 ball go into the 4.5 hole. Outcomes are the finished product. It's what comes out of the paint booth. Shiny and clean, maybe with a little pearl mixed in to make it shine. But Bucket, we don't work in the paint booth. We're down there with the hammers and wrenches.
Where it gets done is on the assembly line. The target directs our process. Our process is what we do to make the ball go to the target. There is a distinction in here someplace. We have to do our work as though it has no outcome but still do our best.
Sing like no one is listening. Dance like nobody is watching. Love like you've never been hurt. Play like we're not keeping score.
So..... You absorb the target. Let it speak to you. Open your senses. There's a perfect shot in there (in you), and a perfect shot for every situation. You know that feeling you get far to seldom when you stand over a putt that there is no way you could miss. You see the line and you just let it go. That's the way the game is meant to be played.
So what do you do all those other times when the target does not speak to you (or you don't listen)? You act like you would if it did. That is your process. Act like you do when you know exactly the shot you want to play and how to do it. I'm sure Yoda has specific thoughts about a structured pre-shot routine (think I've watched a video about it). It begins before that. You analyze the shot (more to come on that), pick your target, pull your club, walk into the shot (Yoda takes over). Let it go. I've said this before. It's what you do over and over. The process is what you do to make the ball go to the target from the time you arrive at the ball to the time you let the shot go. The reason to develop your swing is to be able paint pictures on the course instead of chasing your ball around.
It might help to understand the difference between target and outcome by watching "The Open Championship" at Carnoustie. Instead of the normal medium soft green and the dart throwing contest that follows, we will see the course work its will on the shots. More often then not the ball will take the hop that sends it away from the hole. It could bounce favorably, but it usually does not. Watson says he won all those Opens because he likes bad bounces. Most players don't. So he kept doing his thing while every one else fretted about where their balls ended up. Watson gave up control. He knew he could respond to the challenge.
You keep doing your process until you have to pick the ball out of the hole. The you do it 71 more times. The one with the fewest processes "wins." Regardless of the outcome if you adhere to your process you win. You have done the best you could. That's all you can ever do. Sometimes they give you the trophy.
But... We like outcomes. We have goals. We practice hard, so we can win. We don't play in a vacuum. We know what this shot means. We want to look at the scoreboard. We want to come through in the clutch. We want to make the big putt to win the Open.
We have to be so grounded in our process that we can let all of our wants wash off of us and handle the shot before us. (The ball does not know how important this shot is to us. It will respond to the geometry).
Henny:
Great post! I agree, we all get caught up in the "wrong" stuff. My goal is to play 18 holes or 72 holes, whatever the case may be and not know where I stand to par or to my fellow competitiors. I would like to make each and every stroke as "like we're not keeping score".
Goods thoughts, sooooo let's go do it!!!
Pat
__________________
"Practice mechanics into a feel, play a feel into computer dependability."
Linear Mode
