Archive for the ‘Players’ Category
Off the Tee, Into the Tree
So I'm sitting here playing some armchair golf by watching the Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour in Torrey Pines, CA. Ryan Palmer (no relationship to Arnold Palmer although many people assume he is) hit a ball into a Eucalyptus tree and it lodged in the branches. As Golfer Newbies we are more likely than most to hit our balls off the fairways and into the trees, so I looked up the rules related to golf balls in trees. There are three options related to your ball being in a tree:
- You can climb the tree and play it where it lays, which then does not cost you a stroke, but is an unlikely scenario, although there have been cases on the PGA tour when this has indeed occurred.
- If you can positively identify your ball, you can play the ball two club lengths from the spot on the ground directly under the ball in the tree and take a one stroke penalty.
- If you can't play the ball in the tree and can't positively identify it as yours within five minutes, you have to take a penalty stroke and go back to the place the last stroke was played.
In this case, Ryan could not positively identify his ball, in part because there were several balls in the tree. So, he had to go back to the previous stroke location, which in this case was the tee. This did not do anything for his game today.
An interesting side note: the commentators said that one of these trees was cut down last week following damage from all the storms they had in California and they found 500! balls lodged in it. Amazing.
Tiger Woods Drops the Ball
Well, given his latest mishaps, I guess any golf blog is going to have some mention of Tiger Woods. In this video, you can see yet one more way in which Tiger has “dropped the ball.”
Stories from the 19th Hole
Yesterday I was in our local thrift shop searching for treasures in the book section. I came across a copy of Carol Mann’s The 19th Hole: Favorite Golf Stories for $2.00. It is a great book with lots of fun short stories and factoids from golfers and golfer celebrities, such as:
- Mario Andretti
- Bill Bradley
- Art Buchwald
- Ben Crenshaw
- Phyllis Diller
- Gerald Ford
- Buddy Hackett
- Charlton Heston
- Bob Hop
- Hale Irwin
- Peter Jacobsen
- Jack Lemmon
- Nancy Lopez
- Dave Marr
- Anne Murray
- Jack Nicklaus
- Merlin Olsen
- Arnold Palmer
- Gary Player
- Judy Rankin
- Chi Chi Rodriguez
- Charles Schultz
- Dinah Shore
- Sam Snead
- and many others.
For instance, here’s Phyllis Diller’s brief golf story:
“My son seriously considered going to med school. He even bought a set of golf clubs. Right away he got the feeling that the reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can’t see him laughing. He was a quick learner and after only three lessons he could throw his golf clubs as far as other people who’d been playing for years. He said, ‘Mother, golf has taught me that there is a connection between pain and pleasure. Golf spelled backwards is flog.’ And he says when you consider the expense of golf clubs, green fees and cart rentals, it’s hard to believe the game was invented in Scotland.”
So, I’m enjoying this book – no doubt some of the facts and stories will show up on this site from time to time in the future.
The book is out of print, but you can find used copies online. There is currently one listed on Amazon (see below).
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Tiger Woods on How to Improve Your Putt
Generally, I don’t enjoy reading the articles and books that offer step-by-step descriptions of various ways to swing the clubs. They are boring, and I rarely can apply much from them anyway. However, the book by Tiger Woods is an exception. I started it the other day, and it is really one of the most helpful books on how to improve your golf game and golf swing I have read. I haven’t yet finished the book, but I was very impressed with the chapter on putting (Tiger says you should start with improving your putting game, then your chip shots, then short irons all the way through to your driver – shortest to longest rather than the other way around). He also recommends that you follow the same routine every time you putt. Developing this kind of consistency will most certainly improve your game. I’ve summarized it here for you, but you definitely should read the book for yourself.
Tiger’s Putting Routine:
- Take a general view of the putt while standing behind the ball.
- Walk to the hole while taking a side-view of the line to help determine slope.
- Examine the area around the hole.
- Walk back to the ball and crouch behind it to get the clearest view of break and speed.
- Stand alongside the ball and make two practice swings.
- Move the putter behind the ball and then shift your feet forward.
- Take two more looks at the line and the hole.
- Make the putt.
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