Greetings Golfers,

I just finished reading Brandel Chamblee’s new book “Anatomy of Greatness”. Chamblee is the golf analyst on the Golf Channel who people love … and love to hate.

Chamblee is a smart guy and outspoken. He was pretty tough on Tiger and lots of Tiger fans resented it. But, he focuses quite a bit on Tiger in his book. He is especially impressed with Tiger in his early years on Tour – before Woods went to Hank Haney.

Chamblee is also very impressed with Jack Nicklaus … and Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, and Bobby Jones. I love the book – I think he nails what all of the great players share. And, he’s aware of where instruction goes off the rails. I’ll try to summarize as succinctly as I can:

* He emphasizes a strong grip – not a neutral grip.
* He wants a slightly open stance.
* He likes more of a natural slumped back during set-up, rather than the rigid straight back like Rory McIlroy.
* He stresses the need for the right knee to be kicked in at address.
* He advocates a low and slow take away with a slightly shut clubface.
* He likes a rocking trigger move and lateral body movement to get the backswing going.
* He says the transition from backswing to downswing is the key move – much more important than how you look at the top of the backswing.
* He wants the chin pointed right of the ball during the backswing and at impact.
* He wants the finish to feel “going out and up” – not low left like modern teachers are preaching.

This book will be heresy to many golf instructors. Those who’ve had to listen to me over the years will know that this is what I like. In fact, I’ll probably write about it much more in depth in one of my columns. If interested, you can find my columns at tomabts.com.

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

Good Morning Golfers,

The golf season officially kicks off with the Masters. And Mother Nature agrees – should be beautiful for the next few weeks.

How painful was it to watch Jordan Spieth lose that 5 shot lead? Before this Masters he was liked and admired … now he’s loved. He handled it with such grace and class – and especially humanity. He’s really a special person – I never use the word “special”, but he really is.

The Low Amateur was Bryson DeChambeau – he of the same length irons and disciple of the book “The Golf Machine”. Obviously he’s a great player. But, he has trouble with sidehill lies, funny lies, etc. That Golf Machine swing of his does very well on par 3 holes with flat lies – let’s see if he can become more adaptable with that swing.

On a related note, I received an email the other day from Michael Lavery – the author of “Whole Brain Power” – a book I reviewed last summer. Somehow Mr. Lavery read my review and also read another blog that I wrote about Bryson DeChambeau. He wanted to let me know that he’s been working with Bryson on his training methods such as bouncing a ball on a hammer and hand-writing techniques. I suspect that those hand-eye training methods have helped DeChambeau more than the book “The Golf Machine”.

This week the Tour stops at Hilton Head Island and plays at Harbor Town GC. It’s a shame that it comes the week after the Masters. Harbor Town is a great golf course and only top-notch ball strikers win there. It’s similar to Colonial CC in Fort Worth – and only the best ball strikers win at Colonial. One of those Colonial champions is Minnesota’s own Tim Herron. Tim won 4 times on the PGA Tour and hit the ball as well as anyone.

But, Tim knows there’s more to golf than tournament golf. In fact, he and his sister Alissa were here the other day demanding to know when we were hosting the next Fun Play Friday. After things calmed down, we relieved the tension by explaining that the next Fun Play Fridaywas less than a month away – Friday, May 6.

The golf season is upon us. The Masters has been played, the weather is beautiful, and Fun Play Friday is only a few weeks away.

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

Greetings Golfers,

Hemingway described courage as “Grace under pressure.” I think that’s one aspect of courage – though that might also describe a certain type of apathy.

I think most of us would describe courage as doing what we should do when we’re afraid to do it. Courage is more about doing what is difficult than maintaining our cool.

Playing golf can take courage. Playing a shot while strangers are watching is pretty scary for most average golfers. And playing to win can be pretty scary for professional golfers.

That’s what makes the Masters so much fun. The back nine at Augusta National is full of risk/reward holes. It takes courage to go for birdie (or eagle) on those finishing holes. And, the winner goes under par on the back nine – playing safe won’t win the Green Jacket.

I’m not talking reckless – that will usually end in disaster. No, I mean the courage to play smart and be aggressive.

It’s sort of the Wizard of Oz. Like the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Lion – you need Heart, Brains, and Courage. Reckless is Courage without Brains.

As for “Grace under pressure” … yeah, I respect that. But courage is doing the right thing when it’s difficult. Hemingway blew his brains out with a shotgun. He was always obsessed with being cool. When he got older and thought he wasn’t cool anymore … he took a not very courageous way out.

Being courageous is always cool – being cool isn’t always courageous.

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

Greetings Golfers,

We all know the saying “Drive for show – Putt for dough”.

Is it true? Well the goal of golf is to get the ball in the hole. If you can’t putt, it’s pretty tough to get the ball in the hole.

But you also have to get the ball off of the tee box – if you can’t get the ball to the green, it’s pretty difficult to get it in the hole.

A DRGC player just sent me a blog by a PGA Pro advising his members to dedicate themselves to hitting their drives as far as they can. This fellow cited PGA Tour statistics that proved that the 10 longest drivers won more money than the 10 straightest drivers.

I wouldn’t argue with him – I’m sure it’s true. But that doesn’t mean it applies to amateur golfers.

PGA Tour players need to make birdies. Long drives help them reach par 5’s in two shots, and also make par 4’s more birdieable. But, PGA Tour players are also great putters and iron players. Length, if you’re already in control, is a valuable weapon.

Power out of control is as dangerous in golf as it is in life.

Amateur golfers need to make pars and avoid the bad holes. Wild driving is usually the cause for amateurs to make big numbers. Out of bounds can really hurt your score – especially multiple OB shots. And, OB’s are usually the result of trying to hit a drive too far. I haven’t seen many people putt a ball out of bounds.

Of course we all want to hit the ball farther. But most of us should concentrate on our chipping and putting. And learning to hit the driver straight makes golf a lot more fun.

In my lessons I tell people that we’ll start working on reaching par 5’s in two shots after they become a scratch golfer. Or in other words, that when they get sick of shooting par, we’ll start working on birdieing par 5 holes.

One final thought: PGA Tour players can’t move up to shorter tee boxes – the rest of us have that option.

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