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