Power to your elbow

One final word on distance for women. I’ve just been given a very old (1975!) golf book (The Complete Woman Golfer, by Vivien Saunders - amazing what turns up in the charity shop!) which has at least one comment I haven’t seen elsewhere, viz, that for a woman to hit distance she has to consciously use her strength to damn well hit the ball. Men will naturally use a lot of power, hence all those exhortations to use a relaxed swing and not try to hit the ball too hard. But for women of average physique and athleticism, that’s not going to be enough. This rings true with me. I spent a long time trying to learn a decent serve in tennis. I didn’t think my action was too bad, but where was the speed? Answer, I wasn’t hitting the ball hard enough! The same goes for golf. You have to get a decent swing, but when you think you can do it, give it some wellie!
Okay, maybe I'd better qualify that, i.e. giving it wellie as in 'producing speed through impact while maintaining the tempo of the swing' rather than 'hitting it hell for leather', as we know that's rarely a good idea. (You can see I have all the jargon. Think I've been reading too many golf books!)

Short game, long game

I’m interested in Dave Pelz’s observation that high handicappers should concentrate on the short game rather than constantly striving for more distance. It ties in with a criticism of top women golfers (which has really got Golf Chick fuming) as being less adept around the greens than men. You can see the basic idea. If for whatever reason you’re always going to struggle with distance, why not polish up the rest of your game? I know of one golfer who played off less than 10 and freely admitted his distance was unimpressive, and I certainly know of (very) high handicappers who can freak out partners with much better swings, just by their artful use of the chip and run. Cutting my handicap this summer has definitely come from improved iron shots (which for me is anything less than 120 yards) and it’s so-o satisfying to chip inside your partner!

But who wants to practice the short game, and when you do, where can you do it? Practising short shots from a mat is pretty useless, and very few clubs I have been to have a practise area where you can really chip or pitch in conditions that mimic the course. (Practice putting greens disallow chipping; chipping and pitching greens have poor surfaces.) Pro’s will offer a short game lesson, but very few courses are quiet enough to provide the opportunity to go away and work on what you have learned.
Maybe we need more of the big name players (women and men) to remind us how important the short game is, and the club manufacturers to stop obsessing over distance. As it is, you feel pretty much of a weirdo sloping off at dusk to the first green with a bagful of balls…

Are you at home on the range?

Looking at those irons made me think about how little time I spend on the range these days. As a beginner I remember spending two or three hours a week bashing balls and always choosing the ‘economy’ bucket i.e. 80 or 100 at a time. Yes, that’s the equivalent of a whole round of golf completed (or messed up) in around half an hour! Several years down the road, I have come to the following conclusions:

• If I start off hitting badly on the range I rarely get much better.
• If I start off hitting well, I invariably get worse.
• Hitting well on the range before a round invariably proves the kiss of death.

I still do go down to the range from time to time, but I never hit more than 50 at one go, and sometimes share those with My Other Half.
If you really feel you need the practice (or it’s been pissing down with rain for a fortnight) take a tip I heard a while ago. Instead of hitting 10 or 20 balls with the same club, pretend you are playing ‘for real’, i.e. hit a drive then imagine where you might have ended up on the fairway, and play the next shot as you would on the course. For me this ends up with something like driver, long iron, pitch to the green. Don’t forget to line up your shot and take a practice swing, and If you play a bad hook, assume you’re in the rough!
Of course there’s one very good reason for going to the range. You have given in to common sense and booked a lesson. More on this anon.