foozle vt foo-zled; foo-zling (1892): to manage or play awkwardly; a bungling golf stroke

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The PGA Tour Is In Trouble


The first three full-field events of the 2010 PGA Tour season have seen Ryan Palmer, Bill Haas and Ben Crane in their respective winner's circles. I don't think I'm alone when I say I think the Tour will die a slow death if this keeps up. And I don't mean any disrespect to those aforementioned gentlemen, I assure you. I couldn't pick Ryan Palmer out of a line-up and I'm a big-time fan of (televised) professional golf. Bill Haas has a semi-famous dad, sure, but he's done nothing up until this point in his career to validate his lineage. And Ben Crane? This guy's famous for playing really, really, really slowly and nothing else. The Tour needs Tiger Woods, and if he still can't figure out how to keep his tiger in his pants, then Phil Mickelson needs to pull his head out of his you-know-what and seize the opportunity Tiger's infidelity has afforded him. Please, for the love of God, I can't watch another tournament with a Johnny Nobody holding off a bunch of other Johnny Nobodys down the stretch on the back nine on Sunday. It's just not gonna happen, I'm sorry to say.

Ken Green's Comeback

So I'm sure you've all heard the story about Ken Green's tragic motorhome accident last year that claimed the life of his girlfriend, brother/caddie and his dog. And oh yea, it also cost him the bottom half of one of his legs. Well, he's currently trying to make a comeback to play professional golf again and is raising money by selling these sweet hats pictured at right. Seeings how I have the same initials, I thought it would be extra-cool if I bought one but had to ask beforehand about the crown-size on the hat. See, I have an abnormally large head so "one size fits all" doesn't always pertain to me, especially if the hat in question has a shallow crown depth. And if I buy one more hat that I don't wear my wife is surely going to kill me...So I e-mailed Mr. Green before making my purchase and he responded that he would just send me one regardless, and if it didn't fit well I didn't have to pay for it and should just give it to one of my smaller-headed friends. What a guy! I can't wait to try on my new hat and pay Mr. Green for it in spades.

Long Arms Through Impact


In my daily perusal of my favorite golf blogs, Richie3Jack's contained something in particular that caught my eye. He was talking about people's obsession with creating lag (and hence, power) in their golf swings and made a reference to 'running out of right arm' and that this was something that Homer Kelley talked about in quite a bit in his seminal text, 'The Golfing Machine'. I've noticed lately in my garage golf swing laboratory that some of my best feeling shots have something I'll call 'Long Arms Through Impact'. It sounds like something similar to what Mr. Kelly was explaining, I believe. Let me explain: when I truly feel like I've created good extension and a powerful release through impact, my arms feel very "long". Its like my left forearm has become an extension of my left wrist and hand (and ultimately, the shaft) and they're helping to sling the ball off the club face in a very forceful way towards the target. This is a feeling that I'd like to replicate as much as possible--doing so is another matter entirely, however.
Now back to Richie3Jack...he says "And I think what happens is often times when you try to create too much forward shaft lean and you 'run out of right arm', that running out of right arm causes golfer's to flip. Yes, trying to create too much shaft lean I believe helps *cause* throwaway." This sounds exactly like what I'm trying to avoid. Funny how this is all coming together, isn't it? Thanks, Mr. 3Jack. If you'd like more info from this fantastic blog, check it out at http://3jack.blogspot.com/

Friday, January 29, 2010

John Daly's Done?


So John Daly said he was quitting professional golf today? If he really did, I hope he means it. I heard he said that he wasn't playing up to snuff and felt bad about taking spots away from people who could still actually compete at the highest level of golf. If this is true, then I applaud him. I just hope he doesn't pull a Brett Favre and unretire, like, 7 or 8 times in the coming months/years. The game of golf needs personalities like Big John but his act has become tiresome, if you ask me, so I'll just wish him the best in his next endeavor and be done with it. For some reason I don't think we've heard the last of him, though. Anyone crazy enough to wear those pants (or as Boo Weekley calls them, "britches") probably won't go away quietly.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Swinging A Rope


While goofing around on YouTube the other night, I found an amazing video of a guy working on his golf swing by swinging a rope. For all you "casters" of the club out there (you know who you are), it is absolutely impossible to cast a rope down from the top and make any sort of reasonable golf swing-like motion. You have to initiate the downswing with your body if you hope to have any chance of getting the "club head" back towards the "ball" without looking like a fool. And the backswing cannot start with the hands, either. You must begin your takeaway by moving the big muscles (i.e. shoulders) and accelerate slowly and smoothly with this swing training device. And the best part? You can buy five feet of rope at your local hardware store for less then three dollars. I know because I just did. Put a soft weight on one end of it, like a nut wrapped in lead tape, and start swinging your way to a better golf game.

Monday, January 18, 2010

The Mid-January Blues


Golf seems so far away right now, both literally and figuratively. I haven't actually played the game, outdoors and on grass, in over six weeks and its going to be at least another six weeks until my buddies and I are able to make our now-annual trek south to Kansas City to play again in late March. The PGA Tour is finally back in action but they're playing in Hawaii right now and the images on my television screen look like they're playing on another planet. I've been busy at work and fighting a cold for the last couple of weeks so my work-out schedule and "range time" in my garage have dwindled to almost nothing. Sounds hopeless, right? Well not so fast...next weekend I'm signed up to play in a golf tournament on a neighboring lake called the "Bearly Open". Sure, its a scramble played on ice with a tennis ball and holes the size of hula hoops, but I'll be wielding a 7-iron OUTSIDE so I'm going to call it golf. I'm looking forward to it right now like its the Masters, which oh-by-the-way, I also plan on attending this year for the first time. But more on that later. So its on to the Bearly Open!