Rickie Fowler Wakes Up at ESPN

No, Rickie Fowler is not color blind, but he can play golf (and has a sense of humor about it)!

Stevie Ray Wakes Up Early for a Sound Check

From Bob D, Matt Warnock and Guitar International Magazine:

Sleepy 'ol Stevie just waking up then warming up. Insane how good can you really be that tired? Bless Mr Stevie Ray Vaughan now rocking from above. "Please share, like, comment, show interest in posting more of these old and rare recordings. I'll keep on hunting.. Check my channel for more great SRV Video. 

These videos are intended to help keep Stevie's memory alive and to introduce his great work to younger generations. 

Filmed Jan 1986 by Greg Savage ---"theguitarbuzz.com/tag/srv" --- "savageguitar.com"

My Gary Player Story

At 77, Gary Player recently posed for ESPN's 2013 The Body Issue (video above). After a remarkable accomplishment like this (I will not be asked by ESPN to pose in the 2023 issue), my encounter with Mr. Player seems a little insignificant, but it meant a lot to me.

I attended a practice round of the Milwaukee Open Invitational, evidently held at the North Hills Country Club in Menomonee Fall, WI*. This particular event was noteworthy because (1) Arnold Palmer elected to skip the event to prepare for the British Open (which he won, was well covered by the media, ensured that future US professional golfers would attend and started Palmer's rise to superstardom) and (2)  the Jack Niklaus father-son duo played in the tournament for the first time. And, of the big three professional golfers at the time, Gary Player was also in the field.

Tournaments in the 1960's were run differently than they are in 2013. One difference was that ropes were not put up for the practice rounds and you could walk in the fairways behind the players. We were following Gary Player on a short, downhill par 4 hole** and, off a downhill lie, Mr. Player hit a low wedge shot into the green that hit hard, took one bounce and stopped near the hole.

I was 15 years old at the time, had never seen a shot like that (my fluff wedge shots went high in the air and not very far) and blurted out "How did you do that?" Mr. Player turned around and gave me an intense stare (I was sure that I was in deep trouble) and said "Son, let me show you that shot again." He proceeded to hit three more low wedge shots, talking rapidly all the time, each shot landing within three feet of the other shots, turned to me again and said "Got it?" to which I said "Yes sir, Mr. Player" and kept my mouth shut for the rest of the round.

For two weeks after this lesson, I was able to hit the low wedge shot (to the amazement of my playing partners) but eventually lost it (at the time, I was not one to write things down). I have never been able to hit that same shot again. If I ever again get a chance to ask Mr. Player how to hit the low wedge shot, I will make sure to write it down as a blog posting (you can see Mr. Player hit what I think is one of these low wedge shots here).

* My recollection was that the original course the tournament was played on had been sold and turned into a subdivision. I can't verify this recollection and it actually does not matter to the story.

** Looking at the current Golf Course Tour for North Hills, none of the holes fits this description, seeming to support my prior note. I also followed Jack Niklaus in the tournament (I saw him hit a 1 iron as a second shot on a Par 5 hole but was not close enough to gasp in amazement at the height of the ball flight he was able to get out of such a straight-faced club) and I know that Palmer was not there, so it must have been 1961.

Mysteries of Modern Medicine: The HEAd Anastomosis VENture

Slate Magazine recently produced a short video titled "Who's Ready for a Full Head transplant?" The staff had a lot of fun with this, taking clips appropriately from Frankenstein ("He's alive! He's alive!"), Young Frankenstein (Marty Feldman playing Igor singing I Ain't Got Nobody), The Incredible 2 Head Transplant ("This Brain Wants to Love You, this Brain Wants to Kill You"). Dr. Sergio Canavero is the evil scientist here who even invents his own product, an inorganic polymer glue called "Heads On Glue". In attaching the new head, how could Dr. Canavero possibly get all the nerve connections working properly? With a slight toss of his head and the confident tone exhibited by all great neurosurgeons, he replied that "only few nerve connections need to be correct"!

Jobs the Movie (No, it's not about US unemployment)

The video above is the trailer for the upcoming movie about Steve Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Crew with a large cast (here and here) out of Apple history (Jack Dudman, Mike Markkula, Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, Andy Hertzfeld, Gil Amelio, Bill Atkinson, Chris Espinosa, Jeff Raskin, etc.). If you've read Steve Jobs (the book), I think you'll find the movie very interesting, especially after seeing the trailer.

I have written posts about Steve Jobs (here) and hope to do more in the future. And, I can't wait to see the movie.

What is Trackman and how is it changing golf?

Trackman is a phased-array dopler radar (the small, upright device behind the golfer in the video above, costs about $20K right now and is connected to a PC on the right) that provides detailed feedback on ball flight and club face measurement during a golf swing. Trackman is used for club fitting, golf training and analysis. The video above gives an excellent introduction to the device.

The first step in using Trackman is to pick a target line. Then, when you hit the ball, Trackman provides real-time flight tracking: ball speed, vertical launch, launch spin, carry distance, club speed, and hang time. Trackman also provides club measurement data: club path, club face angle, ball dispersion, attack angle (vertical movement), vertical swing plane, horizontal swing plane, and dynamic loft.

It's important to point out that Trackman does not make a movie of the player's golf swing. Slow motion analysis of golf video was the dominant technology for studying the golf swing. It led to proscriptions about how the golf swing should look and positions the arms, hands and body should be in at different points in the golf swing (see for example Tiger Woods My Swing app pictured above or the approach used by GolfTec and the analysis of my Stack and Tilt swing here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here). Trackman data has demonstrated that the two most important pieces of information are swing speed, face angle (closed, open, square), angle of attack (downward, level, upward)  and swing path (in-out, out-in or square) at impact. Since different styles of golf swing can produce the same swing speed, face angle and swing path at impact, stylistic proscriptions are less important and potentially irrelevant. Another way to say this is that the ball knows nothing about your golf swing, either before or after it was hit.

Trackman is currently being used by golf professionals, club makers, club fitters and golf instructors. The data generated from trackman has changed golf training, golf instruction, club design and how those who use it think about the golf swing. I'll talk about all this in future posts.

DISCLAIMER: Trackman is not the only phased-array dopler radar launch monitor. There is also one made by FlightScope. Since I have not used either of these launch monitors, nothing I have said above or in other posts is meant as a product endorsement. Because Trackman seems to be the most popular, I will continue using "Trackman" as a generic name for "phased-array dopler radar launch monitors". There are also many launch monitors that are not radar based or use radar but not phased-array dopler radar (here). These launch monitors produce less information, have some reliability and accuracy problems but are more affordable.

TECHNICAL NOTE: FlightScope provides a nice technical description of how the phased-array dopler radar launch monitor works (here with a graphic below, click to enlarge). FlightScope has been successfully sued by TrackMan for patent infringement (here), so we'll have to see what the future availability of the product will be.