Golfstruck

Aug 24, 2010

This article, written by Ozzie Carlson, appeared in the Bergen Record 2010 series

Reading the “ridge greens” at Ridgewood

 Seldom has a country club been more appropriately named.  Strolling among the towering, majestic Oaks of Ridgewood, one gets the feeling of oneness with the universe.  Yours truly, a former Assistant Professional at Ridgewood, wouldn’t miss this one for the world.

 The “ridge,” the other geographical feature of this magnificent A.W. Tillinghast  layout, runs spine-like from north to south right through the middle of the course, significantly influencing no less than 10 of the 18 greens played in this week’s tournament. Reading these “ridge” greens will pose one of Ridgewood’s greatest challenges for the world’s top 125 players. 

 The greens built into the East side of the ridge break markedly toward Route 17 (3,5,9,10,11,12,); while those built into the West side of the ridge break mildy toward Bergen Community College (14, 15, 17 & 18). As you watch  the players try to read the “ridge effect,” after just a few groups, you will become pretty adept at predicting on which side of the cup they are likely to miss.

 But Ridgewood is not just about its greens. Ridgewood is a shotmaker’s golf course. Both planning and executing shots that provide the best approach to pin positions will make or break the players on the course.  So lets take a brief tour of this week’s layout – a composite of the three nines at Ridgewood: East, Center and West.

 We start on 1-4 East where players must get off to fast start on these, the best birdie opportunities of the day. The players first warning signal, however, comes on the par five third hole where this deep and narrowly canted three tiered green that breaks severely toward rte. 17 will leave the uninitiated player shaking his head.

 Next we skip to Ridgewood’s signature hole, a drivable par four with the smallest green in major championship history (#6 Center).  This two-tiered postage stamp of a green also poses a reading nightmare with putts breaking devilishly and in the opposite direction they seemingly should.

 Picking up a shot or two on #’s 3-5 Center played as 6 through 8 would be welcome, indeed.

 The next stretch of holes #’s 5-7 East and 2 Center, played as 9 – 12 is the backbone of this layout.  The players who avoids giving strokes back to the course here, all four days, may well find himself standing in the winners circle on Sunday. Hitting fairways with long and well placed tee shots is a requirement to play shots into these severely sloped and very demanding multi-tiered greens.

 With no let up in sight, # 13 (4 West) is a par five stretched for this tournament to well over 600 yards.  Miss the fairway here and you bring mounds covered by thick, gnarly, matted grasses grown to 15” in length, into play.

 The 14th (5 West) requires a lay-up from the tee for a 150 yard uphill approach to an 6 tiered green that may well be the best designed green in all of golf.  There are three tiers from front to back and three more from left to right.  So the player, to avoid three putting this monster, must play to the right of and below the hole – which could require a draw or a fade to a very small target.

 #16 is a birdie hole followed by the double dogleg uphill par 5 17^th that only the very long, bravest and most accurate of players will even try to reach in two.  For those laying-up, ego must be put aside in order to lay-up to full wedge distance to this smallish but severely right to left and back to front sloping green.  Bogey or worse here, will be all too common.

 The 18^th (9 West) is one of the best finishing holes in golf.  It requires a long fade from the tee.  Interestingly, #’s 9 and 18 are the only fades required all day. Hitting a mid to long iron to this uphill spine divided green suggests – good luck if you need a birdie here to get into a playoff.

 If the greens get firm and fast this week, 10 under could again be the winning score.

This article, written by Ozzie Carlson, appeared in the Bergen Record 2007 series

Fixing Your Game

 Article 11:       Putt Better Than The Pros

             Nearly every tour player would tell you that the most inconsistent facet of his game is his putting.  Among the top ranked players this year from Tiger and Vijay to Mickelson, Sergio, Els and Goosen nobody has been exempt from long streaks of bad putting.  So much so that going into last week’s PGA Championship, the final major of the season, there was no clear cut choice of who would win on those severely sloped greens at Southern Hills.

Question: So why are so many tour players, those who rely upon putting for their livelihood such inconsistent, streaky good putters? 1^st, the human machine is imperfect.  We are a little different each day dependant upon what’s on our mind, how we slept, what we ate and our attitude, so recapturing feel can be difficult. Next, our technique and routine are key. And finally, how we practice can make all the difference.

            The putting equation is as follows: Line + Speed + Read + Performance = Result. So, if we are to make putts consistently, we need to be able to start the ball on precisely the line we select with the ball rolling true, i.e. no sidespin whatever, every time. Then we need to be able to roll it the distance or speed we intended, every time. Why?

            There is a truism in putting: Every read has a speed. Which simply means that a breaking putt can be made on any of several lines dependent upon the speed at which we roll it.  So to make the putt we must first determine our speed in order to read the line. What does that mean?  Are we going to die it in, putt it at back of the cup speed ( 3 feet past the hole) or roll it at fall-in-the-hole speed (17” past the cup)?  A bit of advice here.  The hole is biggest at fall-in-the-hole speed so if you want to make more putts, develop the feel for stroking your putts at this speed.

            We can see then that consistent excellent putting requires practice if we are to deliver line and speed consistently.  And here is the rub. Very few players, amateurs and pros alike practice their putting technique properly.  All too many of us are trying to stay still over our putts.  We are trying to keep our head still by not watching the putt roll (a la Tiger and now Annika).  We are trying to stay still from the waist down (like most tour players), which creates tension in the hands, arms and shoulders – a sure recipe for loss of feel and speed control.

            Instead, let’s learn to putt the way the best putter of all time (Bobby Locke of South Africa) putted, let your entire body and your putter become one lever together, swinging around a fixed fulcrum (left neck for righties).  Learn the feel of swinging your putter by using your feet, legs and hips so that you can keep the tension out of your arms and hands. Learn to swing away from and through to an intended finish position @ pendulum speed with no independent moving parts.  Learn to swing on-line with the face square as though swinging along the arc of a Ferris wheel, not on a tilted merry-go round as the belly putters do. And learn this at home on your carpet, putting to a second coin placed 21^1/4 inches beyond the 1^st coin (the front edge of the cup) nightly during the commercials or between innings.

            Then when you get to the putting green before your round, get the speed of today’s greens by rolling 20 footers to the fringe, observing that you swung to your swing target (intended finish position) at pendulum speed.  Then roll two footers over a specific blade of grass, again observing your on-line, square-face finish so that your line on the ball is rolling true.  Then try making some 6 footers from all around a hole with a minor degree of slope, again observing your finish position and the true roll of your ball, every time.

            Note:  In order to observe your finish position and the true roll of your ball, set-up with your eyes in the 3^rd Eye Position.  That is tilt your head, with both eyes on-line and immediately behind the ball, sufficiently toward your target cup to be able to observe your finish and the initial roll of the ball without moving your head.

Golfstruck – Better Golf Right Now!

This article, written by Ozzie Carlson, appeared in the Bergen Record 2008 series

 The Winners Circle

 Article 4: Title:  Putting Wins and Loses Tournaments

 We saw it again this week at the US Open.  The player who wins, putts well.  The player who misses coming down the stretch returns to try again another day.  And yet tour players, with very few exceptions, will tell you that the most unpredictable and inconsistent part of their game is their putting.

Why is that? To be fair, making putts requires greater precision than any other part of the game.  Yes the cup is bigger than the ball, but in determining our line and speed, we need that margin of error for our read of the green. 

Speed/Distance Putting: When reading a putt we must first determine what speed we intend to roll the ball.  Why?  Because the faster we roll it, the less it will break, and conversely. So to determine our line, we must first determine our speed.  It is no coincidence that the best speed putters of all time, Horton Smith, Bobby Locke, Bobby Jones, Walter Travis, Jackie Burke, Bob Charles, Dave Stockton,  George Archer, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Brad Faxon and Loren Roberts were also among the best and most consistently great putters of all time.

Inconsistent delivery of speed is one of the primary causes of streaky great putting.  This category would include such great players as Billy Casper, Gary Player, and yes, Tiger Woods. 

On-Line Putting: Once we become good speed putters, we must become good line putters. In reality, we get no margin of error for line. To make putts we must be capable of starting the ball rolling, laser-like, along our exact read line. predictably Some of our best players throughout their careers struggled mightily with line putting.  Among these were Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and yes Phil Mickelson.  

So what’s the problem?  For a long time, as players, we have been lead to believe the myth that, “great putters are born, not made.”  In other words, unless you came out of the womb with a putter in your hands, you have no chance of learning this precious skill.  I don’t think so. What then, is the real reason why so few talented players have earned the label of great putters?

In my humble opinion, excellent putting requires less talent than any other part of the game.  But I’m convinced, even as I watch good players practice their putting, that there exists a huge information gap – a void if you will – about excellent putting, which makes it very difficult to learn this all-important facet of the game. 

So what’s the solution? If we are to make putts and win tournaments, we must develop and constantly practice a stroke and a routine that collectively deliver line and speed, consistently.  In the short space of this article we can only get a start.  But here goes. 

The Art of Putting is to find THE line and THE speed and deliver both consistently.  So the putting equation then becomes:

Read + Line + Speed + Performance = RESULT

Read the green to locate your Target Cup (accounting for slope, grain, speed, break = where do I putt to?). Unlike the target cup we see on television, we must adjust for distance as well as direction.  This approach turns even the most difficult of putts into a straight and level putt.

Next, while looking at your Target Cup: Take practice swings to determine your Swing Target (where must I to swing to at pendulum speed to roll my ball to there?) Once you can feel your swing target @ pendulum speed you are ready to step up and perform.

Then, to actually make the putt, you will need to develop a performance routine that delivers your stroke a pendulum speed, on-line with the face square, from a fixed fulcrum, in a one-lever motion – to your swing target – every time.  

Next week – a performance routine that delivers in the heat of battle.

Golfstruck – Better Golf Right Now!

This article, written by Ozzie Carlson, appeared in the Bergen Record 2008 series

 The Winners Circle

 Article 5: Title:           The most important shot in the game

 The six foot putt – the most important shot in the game – once again determined the outcome of the US Open.  During the course of the week we constantly saw the top players fall away, one-by-one, by missing their “makeable” putts.

During the playoff between Tiger and Rocco, NBC reviewed the nine, 6-foot and under putts that Rocco Mediate missed during the four rounds of regulation play. How many did Tiger miss? Did he miss even one?  So what’s the difference between hoping we’ll make the 6-foot putt and knowing we’ll make it?

To make putts on command, time and again, you need attitude – the confidence and belief you will deliver the stroke you have practiced, a consistent line and speed stroke, decisive reads, a target cup, a swing target (your intended finish position) and a performance routine that effectively delivers line and speed to your swing target, consistently and predictably. We see all of these in Tiger’s approach to putting. He does all of these so well that he constantly entertains us with absolutely unbelievable pressure putting.

Let’s focus today on what makes for an effective performance routine. For a performance routine to be effective, it must set you up properly to the ball, align you to your target, focus your attention and feel of motion on your swing target and trigger your stroke (tension free) away from and through to your swing target in the same way every time.. 

A well rehearsed performance routine takes on a cadence and rhythm of its own that serves to insulate your mind/body from the heat of the moment. It allows you to perform “with ice in your veins” by being so into your process that you have no time, nor opportunity to become distracted by such variables as making or missing, winning or losing. 

I have successfully taught the performance routine outlined below to many players who have since become excellent putters. It works. 

To simplify the process of learning this routine, I have broken it down into distinct and separate phases, so you can learn each phase in succession and then put them all together.

  A  Performance Routine That Delivers In The Heat of Battle:

The Set-Up Phase    

Line up your (marked) ball to your target cup, precisely!

Align the putter face to ball line with putter head flat on the ground

Position the handle in line with the back of the ball

Tilt straight spine sufficiently for arms to hang free and vertically from shoulders

Place head horizontal with eyes above ball line & immediately behind ball

Tilt head toward target until you can comfortably see both the ball and the target cup

Position lead heel 1” beyond the ball, establish width of stance & set tailbone into lead heel so the natural bottom of your swing arc occurs just beyond the ball

The Grip & Alignment Phase

Place hands on Grip along the life lines behind thumb pads, i.e. facing target cup

Align feet, knees, hips, shoulders to deliver your on-line stroke to target cup 

Note: aligned hip action is the key to delivering on-line shoulder motion

The Connection Phase

      Connect your mind and the inside of rear thigh (forward pressure) to your swing target

      Focus and feel your motion connected to your swing target

      Last Look – eyes trace putt line to target cup & back – smoothly

The Delivery/Observation Phase

Trigger your stroke with entire lead side – by swinging away from your swing target while keeping rear thigh and elbow connected to your swing target

Observe Finish Position and the roll of ball – to learn from every putt!

 Excellent putting is more fun!  There are no shortcuts!

Golfstruck – Better Golf Right Now!

This article, written by Ozzzie Carlson, appeared in the Bergen Record 2008 series

The Winners Circle

 Article 7:  Title:  Good Speed Putters Make More Putts

The debate continues:  When putting, which is more important: line or speed?  Let’s think of it this way: in order to determine your line, you must first determine your speed.  Why?  Because a slowly rolling putt will break more than one that is rolling faster.  So there are actually three speeds at which a putt can be made: die-in-the-hole speed; back-of-the-cup speed; and what I call make-it speed.

At make-it speed, the ball would roll 17 inches beyond the cup.  It is at this speed that the cup is the most generous.  Why?  Because two important factors come into play at this speed.  First, the ball is rolling fast enough as it approaches the cup to hold its line. And second, not so fast that it won’t grab the inside edge of the cup and dive in. It is at this speed that the hole it the biggest, i.e. all putts from inside edge to inside edge, drop.

So if we want to make more putts, we should learn how to practice our make-it speed putting. But here’s the rub.  Everyone always talks about how important speed putting is, but while writing the book on putting, my research uncovered not one morsel of information that told me how to become a good speed putter.  What I did find was information about when to putt at die-in speed, i.e. when we have a difficult putt and want to leave the shortest possible second putt.  I also learned about back-of-the-cup speed, which we use to take the break out of short putts or when putting uphill (and into the grain).  Only Dave Pelz seemed to talk about that magic 17” beyond the hole.  But nobody tells us how to actually roll the rock precisely at any one of these three speeds to holes at different distances.

 Excellent speed putting, it seems, has been reserved to an exclusive club of perhaps the 10 great putters of all time – all of whom just seemed to be born with a certain magic feel. Well, I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way. Speed putting can be learned.  So let’s get started with the magic of pendulum speed.

Try this: suspend your putter by lightly pinching the top of the grip between your thumb and forefinger, allowing it to swing to and fro at its own natural speed – pendulum speed.  Notice that as you broaden the swing arc the putter travels faster, and conversely.

The magic of pendulum speed is that for any given length of swing arc, Mother Nature – gravity and centripetal force – always deliver a uniquely precise speed – a different speed for each different length of swing arc.

To become a consistently excellent speed putter, your job is to get in tune with natural pendulum speed.  Learn to swing your putter from a fixed fulcrum (the left side of the neck for right-handers) in a one-lever motion at pendulum speed.  The true meaning of a one-lever motion is that the entire body and the putter become one, with absolutely no independent moving parts, e.g. hinging of the wrists or elbows, head movement, etc.

Though many tour players intentionally try to keep their lower body still when putting, Bobby Jones, Bobby Locke, Ben Crenshaw and Brad Faxon, among a precious few others, knew better. You see, when the lower body is held still, we must tense the hands, arms and shoulders in order to move the putter. This tension interferes with pendulum speed.

Try this: fill a bucket with water, to the absolute brim. From your putting stance, swing the bucket by its handle without spilling even one drop of water.  To accomplish the required no-splash motion, you will learn to relax the shoulders, arms and hands and instead use your feet, legs and hips to swing the bucket from a fixed fulcrum. You are now learning the true feel of pendulum speed.

Next: repeat this feel of motion with your putting stroke, using your feet, legs and hips to swing the putter. Note where the putter naturally strikes the ground- this is the bottom of your swing arc – the moment when it is travelling the fastest.  When putting, position the ball so that the natural bottom of your swing arc is immediately beyond the ball, so that your putter is naturally accelerating at impact.  In this manner, you will not feel like you have to hit your putts – thus eliminating the tendency to involve wrist hinging.

Finally, now that you can deliver your stroke, repeatedly, at pendulum speed, you need to learn what length of arc is required for different distances.  Try this: take practice swings while looking at your target cup to determine the length of swing arc you feel you will need to roll your ball to your target cup (the adjusted cup position accounting for slope, break, grain and green speed).  When you believe you have discovered the precise finish position that will roll your ball the intended distance – hold it!  Observe it and feel that precise finish position.  You now have a swing target – a place to swing to.

Set-up to position the bottom of your arc just beyond the ball, align to your target cup, and focus your attention and feel of motion on swinging away from and through to your swing target at pendulum speed in a one-lever motion.

Then, and this is of utmost importance, hold and observe your finish position as you watch the ball roll to a stop. You must immediately determine if you delivered precisely the motion you rehearsed.  Only when you observe the motion you actually delivered will you learn from each putt, so that you come to understand why the ball went where it did.  As you practice you will become more adept at determining swing targets and delivering your stroke at pendulum speed, from a fixed fulcrum, in a one-lever motion – to them.

Golfstruck – Better Golf Right Now!