French Open, Scottish Open

Tournament season in sunny Europe and the Brits are off to a great start with Graeme Storm’s win in Paris. Great performances too from Monty, Ian Poulter and Simon Khan, all in the top ten. Golf Girl was there and experienced the full force of Monty’s ill-temper, although according to the Daily Telegraph Colin had calmed down by the last day and is in confident mood for the weeks ahead. ‘I can win’ he is telling us.
Colin, we know that, and no one would like you to do so more than me, but why does this ebullience worry me? I think I’d be more comfortable if he were saying ‘Let’s face it, I haven’t a cat’s chance in hell.’ Then he could give us – and himself – the kind of surprise we’re waiting for.
Meanwhile I’ve just remembered that any day now we’ll have the Scottish Open on one of the most spectacularly beautiful golf courses in the country and possibly the world. Ticket prices are a snip at £25 and I’ve have been diverted from the task in hand into investigating hotels around Loch Lomond. Fat chance, I fear. If only I’d thought of it earlier. For photos of the location I can do no better than show you those taken last year and moon about saying ‘my heart’s in the highlands.’ Golf Girl should pack her bag again and try this side of the channel. It doesn’t always rain (honest).

More photos by John1710 on Flikr or or see Monty last year on a previous post.

Stop Press: Bargain rounds at Carnoustie

Apparently Carnoustie are reducing green fees for visitors by 50% on the Championship course from now until 2nd July as you’ll be playing off mats. Thanks to a member of Golf Monthly Forum for that one. Sounds like a bargain to me. (If only I were closer.)
Must be a worry, though, that they have suspended the course manager a month before the big event!



Photo from macieklew. More great pics in the set on flickr

(Minor grumble: - for a top golfing venue, Carnoustie could smarten up its website. I suppose they have other things to think about right now!)

Thanks, Paul Lawrie

This tip was in a recent issue of Golf Monthly and that it came from the pen (?*) of Paul Lawrie, my countryman, who was there to catch the claret jug when Jean Van de Velde let it slip from his grasp at the infamous Open at Carnoustie in 1999.
The tip is very simple and one I’ve seen or been told about before. It’s also one that’s easily forgotten in the middle of a bad round or (even more likely) when you are playing fabulously well one minute with several pars on the card (birdies? don’t be silly) … and the next minute it all goes wrong. We’ve all been there.
Paul’s tip is to always make a tiny pause at the top of your back swing. This ensures you can start moving your weight forward from the hips and prevents you bringing your arms through too fast, a very common fault in beginners (and a lot of people who should know better). In my case the result is usually a ball that flies way left, or one that fails to fly anywhere. What stuck in my mind about Paul’s solution is the way he put it, ‘Rotate and wait’. Very neat, and memorable, a mnemonic in fact, so it’s easier to remember. I suggest that next time your swing stops working, give it a try. Paul refers to it for fairway woods, but I think it applies to driving and irons too.

Re Carnoustie 99, an article in Greenside magazine reminds me that Paul Lawrie has done a lot more than this in his golfing life, even if his form hasn’t been great of late. I saw him myself at the only pro tour event I have ever attended at Celtic Manor (2004?) where his was the first shot I saw played and it went into the trees. I found it quite comforting that even the great and the good have to play out of bad positions. Stand by for a deluge of articles about whether or not Paul will come into his own again on the home links this year.

*?Just a thought. Why do top tour pros take the time to write tips for golf mags? I can’t think they really need the money. Maybe the manager puts them out with a batch of photos to keep those shekels rolling in during the off-season, or maybe there’s a secret cabal of second-string pros acting as ghost writers? Feel free to educate me on this point.

Club Competitions

An interesting question on the Golf Monthly Forum . (Is it my imagination, or is there a distinctly men only feeling about the place? Anyway, I left a couple of replies and no-one has quoted any men-only rules at me – yet.)
A member wanted to know if it’s okay to enter club competition as a relative newcomer to the game with a highish handicap and a less than encyclopaedic knowledge of the rules. On the matter of knowing the rules, I’d say it’s good to bone up at least on penalty shots and free drops, and to know the local course rules. But I think playing competitions is a good thing, and clubs should encourage and support new members who aren’t too confident (and some clubs expect you to compete regularly if you have asked for a handicap to be assigned). You could always ask to be put in an experienced group who won't scare you off. The trouble is, that especially the first time, you’re almost certain to feel under pressure, and may well have a round that’s er - well, undistinguished (polite version.) But the more you play competitions, the less it gets to you. I’ve entered some competitions very reluctantly and done okay. On other days I’ve been feeling good and done atrociously. But the main thing is to keep having a go. And if you keep handing in cards and you’re still on 28, at least there’s no way you can be accused of being a bandit!

Video shelf ( a very small one)

If golf books work for me, golf videos come with a bit of a health warning. Trust me, Nick Faldo’s jumpers do not transfer well to the medium, and David Leadbetter’s accent can really start to grate after a while. There’s one honourable exception. If the putting yips have got to you, take a look at this video by Bob Rotella and Brad Faxon. Brad's not the biggest name on the tour, but he can putt, and he makes it look superlatively easy. There’s a lot to be said for his technique (or lack of) which is something to do with taking a quick look at the putt and just going with your instinct. Funnily enough, that’s a lot harder to do than it sounds. I think I shall now take a break from the bookshelf, or someone out there might accuse me of being some kind of librarian.

Thanks to Librarian Avenger for the photo

Bookshelf

No one on the forum has so far mentioned all those 'How to Play Golf' books and videos. It will depend on how you like to learn, but it has to be said that MOH hasn’t had a lesson in years and has reduced his handicap from 24 to 15, mainly from reading golf mags and his growing collection (home extension soon required) of books. Yes, he is dedicated, but it works for him. I’m usually happy to wait for tit-bits of his distilled knowledge to fall my way, but one book that made sense to me was the Swing Factory. You’ve probably heard of those guys who keep their pupils locked up in a basement until the swing is as it should be. Since the book was a Christmas present we decided to give it a whirl (literally) in our very own Swing Factory (i.e. garage) for most of the following January. The book doesn’t say a lot (though the photos are good for celeb-spotting: my eagle eye picked out Hugh Grant straight away) but it does explain everything in minute detail. It’s a painstaking, golf-swing-by-numbers approach that could probably destroy a decent swing, but I do believe it was the first thing that got me taking the club back on the right plane.
As for the rest? Well, maybe I should have just gone for that lesson!

If you like your reading a bit lighter, of all the books out there, each with a wackier title than the next, I urge you to read the wackiest, My Baby Got the Yips by David Russell. Here’s a guy who played off 6 at Sunningdale and was in line for a career in golf, but somehow just didn’t have what it takes to play the game at a high level. Luckily for us, he came back to the game, re-discovered his love for it and recorded his experiences in this book. He includes all kinds of things, mixing personal memoir with bits of history and even golf tips. I read it on holiday in the company of three golfing buddies all with different reading habits. Each of us read it in turn, cover to cover, and annoyed everyone else by laughing out loud. And the author is a bit of a tease. He leaves it until the last chapters to tell us what he believes are the true Secrets of Golf. Pretty good tips they are too. (Me, a tease?)

Taking a Lesson (but not just any lesson)

On Golf Monthly forum there’s an on-going discussion about improving your game and most people come down on the side of taking lessons and getting in plenty of practice. That’s it then: – learn – practice – succeed?
Well, without even mentioning the mental game, I can tell you it’s not that simple. As regards lessons, we all have different ways of learning, and , particularly if you’re a high handicapper (and/or a golf chick) it can be hard to find a teacher who ‘does it for you’, and believe me, if there isn’t a sense of partnership, of both of you working towards a particular goal and finding out how to get there, that lesson will do no good at all. In my time I’ve had a lessons where the teacher clearly thought a woman of a certain age who could hit the ball a hundred yards or so in a straight line should be happy to leave it at that. (I don’t think so, some of us are serious about this!)
At the other extreme, another pro started out by comparing my 30 handicap swing on video to that of Ernie Els. Leaving aside the matter of whose bum was biggest, let’s just say that wasn’t a pretty sight, and I felt defeated before we’d even begun to put my swing right.
So, yes, get yourself lessons, especially if you’re just starting or coming back into the game, but choose wisely and choose well. Take a taster lesson, and if things don’t feel good, don’t be afraid to duck out. Photo from pocketwiley on flickr