Greetings Golfers,

Are you watching the baseball playoffs? I really wanted the Cubs to go all the way … I hope it happens in my lifetime.

It blows my mind how good major league baseball players are – it’s ridiculous. They make hard plays look easy … and they can hit pitching that is unhittable. Imagine if they used metal bats like high school players and softball players use. The ball parks would become obsolete.

Well, that’s what’s happened to golf. Metal headed drivers and souped up balls have made classic courses obsolete (for Tour players).

Here’s what Gary Player said last week at the Western Golf Association’s fifth annual Green Coat Gala:
“If we look at the Tour in 30 to 40 to 50 years’ time, 50% of the Tour will hit the ball 400 yards. What’s going to happen to golf? It’s going to be obsolete. Leaders are not handling this in the way that they should. They should cut the ball of professional golf down by 50 yards, and let the amateurs use what they like. They don’t recognize that there are two different games between professional and amateur, and that they are as different as night and day”.

I agree. It’s a shame that the equipment is making great, old, classic golf courses obsolete. Imagine if Wrigley Field became obsolete. I want to see the Cubs win a World Series at Wrigley … not at some crazy ball park that looks like an erector set and center field is 600 feet from home plate.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Two years ago I wrote a blog entitled “Self-serving” … it was about winning the TEE TIMES MAGAZINE Readers Poll award for “Best Hospitality” for the second year in a row.

Last year – we won it again … and I kept myself from writing about it.

Well, we just won it for the fourth year in a row. Hurrah!

And, we got second place in the “Best Greens” category.
Our Superintendent deserves public recognition – he does a phenomenal job.

And we finished third in “Best Golf Experience” and also third in “Favorite Golf Course For A Tournament”.

Self-serving? Yes. But I mostly want to acknowledge our staff. This is a team game. Thank you!

That’s it – it had to be done.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

It always takes me awhile to get my bearings back after a trip – lot’s of thoughts, but not many conclusions. I need time to let these thoughts connect.

Here’s some of the stuff that’s been going through my mind:

While talking to guys in pubs in Scotland, I was constantly asked why football (soccer) isn’t popular in the States. My own sons played soccer as kids – liked it, but never loved it – and don’t follow it now as adults. Why? I told the pub guys that Americans like sports that are more about the hands such as baseball, basketball, and American football. Your thoughts?

Speaking of American team sports … how about the Twins? What a turn-around! Paul Molitor deserves more credit than he’s been getting – that team was dead before he came along. I like the Viking’s coach Mike Zimmer – I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a very good year. The T-Wolves are doing the right things (finally!) and Sam Mitchell wants to take the time to build a winner. The Wolves were never patient enough to do things right – they’ve been in constant panic mode with a short-term philosophy. What about the Wild? Who knows? They won a crazy game last night … but they’re missing some key ingredient – they’re like a stew that’s too bland.

Back to that hands idea. Hands are what really make American football – it’s become a passing game. You need a star quarterback more than anything. So what’s with the Gophers? I want to like Coach Kill … and I respect loyalty … but that quarterback is not a Division 1 player (maybe he’d be a good soccer player).

Golf is hands. Putting and chipping are hands. The golf swing only works if the hands do their job. Played the other day with a man in his 80’s who made a putt on #17 to win the matches we had going on … his hands worked in the clutch. Golf is much more about feel than we want to admit. I’d come back from playing slow greens in Scotland to playing lightening fast greens at a local golf club with the aforementioned fellow. It took me 9 holes to get the feel of the greens … but I’d already shot a million even though I’d hit the ball pretty well.

I don’t know … Scotland, soccer, hands, good coaches, guys in their 80’s still playing good golf … there must be some connections.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Just finished hitting some balls off a Power Tee driving range. Not our newly installed Power Tees … but at St. Andrews. Seriously. The Holy Grail of golf also has Power Tee range mats – exactly like the ones at Deer Run GC.

Speaking of the Holy Grail of Golf … played yesterday at the Crail Golfing Society – just south of the town of St. Andrews. Crail GS is supposedly the course that Michael Murphy wrote about in Golf in the Kingdom. I didn’t meet Shivas Irons, but the Head Pro Graeme Lennie is a great guy. And the golf course is as good as you’d hope … and is surrounded by the North Sea – it’s on a peninsula. We played the last few holes as the sun was setting and the fog was rolling in. I’m not trying to sound like a jerk … but how do I not talk about it? It was amazing!

We’ve been lucky and had no rain and a lot of sun. We were expecting cold and rainy … this nice weather is a bonus. But we didn’t come for warm weather … we came for Scotland. If you like dogs, scotch whisky, cashmere sweaters and plaid clothing, unpretentious people, and of course GOLF … you would love Scotland.

We stayed a few days just outside of Glasgow … then went to St. Andrews for a few days, and now we’re in Edinburgh. All during our travels we see golf courses everywhere! And everyone over here is talking about Jordan Speith … and next year’s Ryder Cup.

Golf is very healthy over here in Scotland. And the PGA Tour is very healthy with the rise of these young superstars. The doom and gloom about golf the last 10 years has been overblown. Golf is an ancient game with a fascinating history. But it also adapts with the times … for example St. Andrews using Power Tees. The secret is to combine the best of the old with the best of the new.

Maybe that’s why St. Andrews and the Crail Golfing Society are the Holy Grails of Golf.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Today is September 25 … and the weather is still great. We had a really nice Summer, and it’s continued into Fall – hope it lasts through October.

As most of you know – we charge Senior Rates for everyone/everyday throughout the whole month of October. It’s sort of like Christmas – our generosity knows no bounds.

And, our final day for the year will be Sunday, November 1. Why would we close if it’s still warm and sunny in November? Here’s why – because of the combination of morning frost and early sunsets. If it’s dark at 5pm … and if a round of golf takes 4 hours … then our last tee-time has to be 1pm.

And, if there’s frost … our first tee-time might be 11am. So, we’d end-up having two hours of tee-times at Senior Rate prices … and beating-up the golf course. (Turf doesn’t heal very well in November).

We’d rather have a beauteous course in the Spring than make (or try to make) a few extra nickels in November.

Now y’all know.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Even after all these years, I’m continually experimenting with my golf swing. Because I’m older, I feel that I’ve had to make changes … but I was never really satisfied with my golf swing when I was younger … is/was anyone?

Tiger Woods is an obvious example of never being satisfied with his golf swing – even when he was the best player in the world. I think Byron Nelson may have reached a level of satisfaction with his game – but then he retired at age 34. Ironically, one of his students – Tom Watson – says that he (Watson) was never happy with his own swing until quite late in his career.

Nelson in many ways is considered the “Father of the Modern Swing”. What does that mean? Well, Nelson’s swing is pretty similar to today’s Tour swings – but not much like the swings of Bobby Jones and the players before Nelson.

I think we can all learn from this evolution … and that most of us need to go on a similar evolutionary path. The good early swings had a lot of freedom of movement and good hand-action.  Bobby Jones and other early stars had big shoulder turns AND big hip turns. They rotated the club open on the backswing and rotated it through the ball on the forward swing. They hit the ball a long way with a lot of clubhead speed. They relied on great hand-eye coordination, flexibility, and timing.

Byron Nelson struggled with that type of swing and tried to simplify it by minimizing the turning of the hips, minimizing the rotation of the club, and shortening the backswing. Nelson wanted to rely more on the big muscles than on the timing of the feet and hands.

In 1973, Mindy Blake wrote “The Golf Swing of the Future”. Blake said that the golf swing would evolve into the body acting as a spring that winds-up and then unwinds as it hits the golf ball.  He emphasized a set-up position that almost faces the target and then the upper body turns away from the target while the lower body stays open – creating a lot of tension. Then, when the upper body unwinds with the lateral driving of the legs, the ball is hit with a lot of FORCE which delivers a powerful golf shot … not power from swing speed like in Bobby Jones era.

Wow. What to take from all of this? Most people need a freer golf motion with better hand action. But, tightening that up can lead to a more consistent golf game. We all need to keep evolving our swing … but we can’t skip the different stages.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Last Friday I talked a little about a brain power book. To prove how much I need the book, I had the name wrong – I called it “Full Brain Power” – the real name is “Whole Brain Power” by Michael Lavery.

Mr. Lavery is quite the character – take a look at any of his videos on YouTube. But I think he’s really onto something … one of the book’s subtitle’s is “The Phenomenal Discovery: Your Hands Grow Your Brain”.  Lavery proves that you can develop both sides of your brain as you develop your hand-eye coordination in both hands.

Lavery wants us to bounce golf balls on the heads of hammers (even sledge-hammers) with both hands, and to hone our penmanship with each hand. To quote “The one activity that will develop the human brain is the use of both hands equally well in almost everything we do. The development of whole brain power through ambidexterity can lead to improved:

* creativity, especially in concept development
* athletic skills in all sports, especially golf, tennis, baseball
* muscle density and grip strength
* hand-eye coordination
* fine motor skills
* blood volume and circulation in the brain
* musical skills with almost every instrument
* memory improvement
* prevention or delay of the onset on Alzheimer’s

I don’t know about you, but I need help with all the above – especially the last one.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

While out for a walk the other day, I took a look at our neighborhood “library”. One of our neighbors set up a see-through box that holds books. So neighbors take these and replace with other books – it’s pretty cool.

So I grabbed “Mavericks of Golf” … and figured it would be about unique Tour layers like Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros, Chi Chi Rodriguez, and guys like that. Wrong again. It was written by Jim Hansberger, the former owner of Ram Golf.

Hansberger is a classic entrepreneur and his stories about the early days of golf are fascinating. These golf companies basically started out of a garage and evolved into the big names of golf: Wilson, MacGregor, Ping, etc.

Seems like yesterday when everyone played Wilson irons, MacGregor woods (or Powerbuilt) a Ping Anser putter, and used a Titleist balata ball. Wow have things changed!

That leads me to US Amateur Champion Bryson DeChambeau. Have you seen his set of clubs? All of the irons are the same length – he just changes the loft. (I think the Tommy Armour Company tried that about 25 years ago.) Obviously he’s a great player. He’s also smart – a physics’ major at SMU.

While watching a YouTube video of DeChambeau, the next video popped up about some guy doing hand-eye coordination drills. He talked about how these drills develop your brain – especially with the non-dominate hand. And, how these drills can develop your golf game better than anything … he wrote a book called “Whole Brain Power”.

I just ordered the brain power book. Not sure that it will end up in the neighborhood library – I’ll probably need this book the rest of my life.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Have you seen the new tv show “Humans”? It deals with human-like robots and the issues that would come with such a future. That’s not a new theme – the movie “2001” and sci-fi writing have wrestled with the dangers of super intelligent robots.

I’d like to have a robot – to help me with chores, but not to run my life. And, I don’t want to be like a robot. So, why do people try to swing a golf club like a robot?

What matters in the golf swing is impact … and there are many ways to get to a correct impact. A robot golf swing might have a correct way to get to impact – but it’s not the only way. For many people, the way a robot swings will not get them to a correct impact. Think about that. Too many people think that a “proper” set-up and backswing will automatically get them to a correct impact position.

There are fundamentals to the golf swing … and the main fundamental is correct impact. The next fundamental is the position that can get you consistently to the correct impact position – that position is the halfway point of the downswing. Those are by far the most important parts of the golf swing.

Jim Furyk loops the club to get into the correct downswing position so he can get to correct impact. Would a robot make that move? Would Furyk be a better player if he tried to swing like a robot? I bet he couldn’t get the club into the correct position on the downswing. If so, he couldn’t consistently get to correct impact.

We have too many “models” that miss the point. Some business models emphasize “proper” margins in all departments at the demise of the success of the overall operation.

This “robotization” of America disturbs me. I’m glad these shows are bringing up these issues (even the new show “Mr. Robot”). Isn’t America about individuality – “The land of the free and the home of the brave”?

Take ownership of your golf swing. Work on impact with your chipping … then develop a swing that can consistently get you back to correct impact. Unless you’d rather have all of the joy a robot gets from golf.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

I just read an article the other day about a huge golf apparel/equipment company that was wrestling with how to downsize because of their weak sales. Is that a bad sign for golf? I don’t think so.

It seems to me that niche markets are growing. Look at craft beers. Our golf shop is doing really well with smaller, unique clothing lines.

Remember when television had 3 networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC? That was it. And everybody bought a Ford or a Chevy. The power in the marketplace was to find the middle-ground – what appealed to the masses. Do you remember that saying “Sell to the Classes and live with the Masses … sell to the Masses and live with the Classes.”

Well, I think the internet changed a lot of that – and so did cable tv. People got used to options and now want options in everything! The middle-ground has become boring – not cool.

I think that golf has a lot of niches and the secret to success is know your niche. The model of trying to be everything to everyone is suicide.

Does that mean being different just to be different? Not at all – it means knowing who you are. Remember when Coca-Cola abandoned Classic Coke? They almost folded. There will always be a market for classic things – especially if what made them classic is continued. Too often, over the years, what made a product classic was cheapened because the company thought that the name and reputation was enough to fool the public.

I’m all for options. But, I’m also for integrity and quality. And I think most people do too. They may not want the same things … but they don’t want junk.

One of those golf companies just kept coming out with a new driver every 6 months – not that it was an improvement … they just wanted to load up the stores and golfers with new, unneeded drivers. That’s not a brilliant business model. So is their decline in business a bad sign for golf? Hardly. It’s a sign that they should start doing things right.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com