The Pot Calling The Kettle Black, Literally!

I know that the clips of CNN anchor Candy Crowley trying to herd these cats has been played a lot, but it is truly remarkable. At the end of the clips, we have Governor Romney trying to call President Obama a liar and Candy Crowley has to step in and call the Governor a liar! Romney is the last person in the World that should be calling anyone a liar and, as my mother would say, "That's the pot calling the kettle black." Oh wait, in this case it's the challenger calling the President Black! Now it makes sense.

Now imagine that you work for a CEO-type like Mitt Romney and he calls you into his office to tell you that you're a liar. It's happened to me and it makes my stomach turn. In my case, there was no moderator there to call the CEO out and it is obvious that Mitt is just being a typical CEO here. I love watching him stammer after standing there with his pants on fire.

NOTE TO BHO: Just let the guy talk. He just keeps digging himself in deeper.

Front, Center and Rear Anchor Golf Swings

E. A. Tischler of New Horizons Golf Approach has a book out with a great title "The Secrets of Owning Your Own Swing". For me, this is the most important issue in golf. When you are out on the course and you're not playing very well, you can't give up on the round and wait until your next lesson to figure out what is going wrong. You have to understand ("own") your swing well enough to get your game back on track. If you can do that, you don't need a golf coach!

The other problem with golf instruction is that it is typically a one-size-fits-all approach. You are given the "correct" golf swing and expected to learn it. Unfortunately, everyone's body is different: bone structures are different, muscle masses differ, fat distributions differ, heights differ, athletic abilities differ, body symmetry is different, etc. It is just hard for me to believe that the different somatotypes can all use the same golf swing.

The Laws of Golf approach assumes that body type dictates swing type.  This is a little better than one-size-fits-all but the somatotype distinctions are not good enough to help you "own" your golf swing. If you are not playing well, either you are not executing the swing "correctly" or your body type has changed. Since body types don't usually change in the course of a round, you are back to learning the "correct" swing on the course.

E A Tischler's approach involves determining how you hit the best shots and tailoring your swing to your natural preferences based on results rather than conformation to ideal types. In the video above, he describes the three ways you can anchor your swing: front, center or left anchor (basically, front anchor is similar to Stack and Tilt, center anchor is similar to the Somax Swing and rear anchor is similar to the Width Swing). If you accept this line of reasoning, then there is no single way to anchor the golf swing (most conventional instruction, such as GolfTec, is right-anchor).

Tischler's full approach has 12 biomechanical features of the golf swing each with three options (Power-of-Three-Golf). Anchoring is just one of the biomechanical features. Basically, I have been able to work my way through the first five (mostly devoted to accuracy): Swing Path, Swing Track, Wrist Action, Delivery Action (still not sure about this) and Swing Anchor (discussed in the video above--at points the wind noise is bad but it's worth waiting for the wind to subside). The remaining features deal with Power and Feel. Coming at all this from having tried the Width Swing, Stack and Tilt, the Somax Swing and the Hogan Missing Piece Swing was helpful. E A Tischler's approach is a lot to digest but well worth the effort!

Who Are the 47%?

SNL provides an answer to Mitt Romney's "off-the-cuff" comment in front of wealthy donors.

Romney Makes Appearance on Big Bank Commercial

Romney's appearance started out to be a pitch for reductions in financial regulation and ended up as a commentary on heartless, robotic right wing social policies.

Club Selection for Chipping

In the video above, we have Brad Smith suggesting that you use three clubs (8-iron, Pitching-wedge and Sand-wedge) for chipping. Brad provides a rough formula for roll-out: Sand-wedge 1:1, Pitching-wedge, 2:1 and 8-iron, 3:1.

As a young player, I had the chance to see Gary Player at the Milwaukee Open in the 1960's. Player seemed to chip with every iron in the bag depending on the distance from the hole. When I recently followed college players in the Big Ten Championship at University Ridge, all the college players seemed to chip exclusively with the 60-degree wedge.

I am basically a mediocre chipper. Over time, I have had success with the Gary Player approach (to include chipping with a 22-degree utility club), with the a single club (usually an 8-iron, Sand-wedge or 60-degree Wedge), but I have not tried Brad Smith's three-club approach. Since this tip was passed on to me by Tom Scott (see Tom chipping here), it's certainly worth a try.

One concern I have about the Brad Smith video is that I have had very little luck chipping out of the rough with anything other than a Sand-wedge. All of Brad's shots in the video above were out of the rough and my guess is that he fluffed them up for the video. Where I have the most problem is from tight lies. At my home course, the Orchards in Egg Harbor, WI, the mowed areas around the greens have bent grass and are closely enough cut that putting (Texas Wedge) seems to be the most effective approach. So, we're back to Gary Player: use whatever club works for the conditions!

Another Steve Stricker Chipping Variation: the Tom Scott "Soft-Elbows" Shot

In an earlier post (here) I presented a Stack & Tilt variation on Steve Stricker's "stiff-wrist" approach to chipping. Tom Scott has a variation on the Stricker Swing which he calls the "soft-elbows" chip. Here's Tom's explanation of the shot that's demonstrated in the video below (given the typically high level of wind noise  at the Orchards Golf Club in Door County, WI, on this day, you can't hear what Tom is saying in the video, but I've asked him to write the copy below).



When I'm looking at a pitch/chip from rough or even longer cut fairways I like to use my flop wedge (60 degree).  I take a pretty open stance and, depending on the distance, I'll move my hands either more or less forward from neutral, in effect changing the loft of the club I suppose as much as +/- 10 degrees from nominal.  The swing itself is characterized by soft knees and particularly soft elbows with little to no wrist break.  In the practice swings what I'm looking for is a soft brushing of the grass in a smooth no-pinch stroke.  Distance is controlled by both loft and backswing, the latter rarely past half-way.  I use this swing on all my short to medium chip/pitches and with all my wedges.  From really short cut fringe/apron, where putting isn't possible I'll use my pitching-wedge or my gap-wedge, same swing.

Tom tried to teach me this chip many years ago and I never got it. What I seemed to be missing is that he works his right hand under on the follow through keeping the club face pointing up toward the sky. What I do a little differently, at least for right now, is to use a little more forward body movement (see the Stricker Chip here). My hands are not as good as Tom's, so I need to make sure that the club head is lagging behind my hands on the follow through (see my post on Padraig Harrington's approach to chipping here).