Who said golf is fair?

Bubba Watson, by PGA tour standards a reasonably long driver, averages leaving 158.4 yards to the hole, including all par 4 and par 5 holes.

Over the course of a season in which 600 drives are struck, Martin Laird has to navigate 2.1 miles more golf course, and he’s just 10 places below Watson in the category (Average To The Hole After Tee Shots).

Don’t feel sorry for Laird until you consider the following players, each 10 places down the category in descending order:

• Davis Love III          2.8 miles
• Chris Couch           3.27 mi.
• Joe Olgivie             3.76
• Zach Miller             4.15
• Bill Lunde              4.43
• Ernie Els               4.70
• Blake Adams         4.97
• Brendt Snedeker    5.26
• Ben Martin             5.48
• Troy Merritt            5.93
• Brendon de Jong    6.20 miles
  

·         Forget for one second all other “yeah buts…” that you might be thinking right now, and be honest with yourself.

Make sure you understand the metrics—in the process of playing 600 drives, in reaching the holes, Ernie Els has 4.70 miles of more golf course to cover than Watson.

"Shorter" players are forced to play "longer" courses.

The facts are screamingly clear, the obstacle is length—and we’re meaning length in miles over the course of several tournament rounds. 

 Brendon de Jong is  6.20 miles behind Bubba Watson!

That means he must fire longer, less accurate clubs into greens.

That projects the he will miss more greens, be in more bunkers, have longer putts, and chip far more often.

That means his chances of making birdies are lessened, which means for a tour player, higher scores, missed cuts, and less money.

As you would guess, Watson is leading this list in victories and money earnings.  He certainly should, given that he plays “shorter” par four and par five holes.

NOTE:  In playing a four round tournament, a player will have about 56 opportunities from the tee, so 600 is not a huge number of drives.  Obviously, all players are not in the same events, and don’t play the same number of tournaments.  In selecting players, I used those in a succession every tenth player down the list.  Watson does not lead the tour in this category.  Relative to amateur players, even “short” tour players are long—de Jong averages 287.7 yards on drives.  A scratch amateur averages about 20 yards less on drives than the tour driving average (290.9 yards).  A single digit amateur averages about 20 yards less than a scratch amateur, and a 10-16 handicap player averages another 20 yards less.  Obviously, Watson’s advantage doesn’t begin and end with driver.  He flies 7-iron, for instance, 195 yards.  (These statistics are from the PGA Tour, the USGA, Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, Golfweek, and from personal observation.)

 

If one can get it from a book, he or she would already have it, right?

If one can get it from a video, he or she would already have it, too.

If one could improve significantly by practicing what he or she already knows, he or she would already have it, correct?

If one desires to beat an elite player, then he or she must do some things better than elite players, right?

Chances are great, too, that the something better is also going to be something different, don’t you agree?

That something different is going to be something that you don’t yet know—something you must learn, right?

Expert coaches ask us to do two things: Things we don’t yet know how to do, and things we don’t want to do.  And, that’s why we need expert coaches.

Expert coaches are accountable for what they ask players to do.

Players must, too, become accountable for their own improvement.

Einstein told us years ago that if we keep on doing what we’ve always been doing then we’re going to keep on getting what we have always been getting.

So, if what you are doing hasn’t already gotten you the level to which you aspire and are capable of reaching, maybe it’s time for you to seriously consider learning something better.

Flying the golf ball deeper is something better.  Adding length to your shots doesn’t detract from you accuracy, it improves your ball control. 

Clubhead speed either compresses the ball or it doesn’t.  Those who have it do it.

Those who don’t have it remain short and inaccurate. 

Improving length improves every other aspect of the sport—greens in regulation because of shorter, more accurate clubs on approaches;  putting because one has shorter, more makeable putts; pitching because of the ability to compress and spin the ball, and chipping, too, because one won’t be chipping on virtually every hole.

Putting for birdies is a whole lot better than putting for pars, bogies, and doubles!

The only real obstacle we face in this sport is the length of the golf course.  Doesn’t that make overcoming the length of the course the direct route to lower scores?

Length does have its advantages.

In the sport of golf, the advantage of generating distance is borderless.  Length has its rewards on the Korean professional tours, too. 

The players who generate more distance from the tee hit more greens in regulation and make more putts than those professionals who are shorter off the tee.  They have shorter putts.  It’s that simple.

On the men’s tour, the 14 yards difference in length between the top player and the fifth ranked player equates to 2.8 strokes per round!

Length creates scoring opportunities.  On the ladies tour, the top player with only a four-yard advantage off the tee hits 3.56 more greens in regulation than the fifth ranked player.  That’s a huge advantage in scoring opportunities.

Statistics of Top 5 of both PGA and LPGA Tours

Tour	Rank	Scoring Avg.	Avg. Driving Distance	Driving Accuracy	Greens in Reg.	Putts Avg.
KPGA	1	68.36	305	67.582	81.313	1.66
	2	70.67	299	67.411	78.571	1.73
	3	71.00	293	66.327	75.	1.74
	4	71.11	292	66.138	74.222	1.75
	5	71.16	291	66.071	72.889	1.75
KLPGA	1	71.21	249.07	91.07	78.10	1.629
	2	71.25	248.64	88.69	77.78	1.631
	3	71.46	247.79	88.39	75.35	1.632
	4	71.50	246.86	87.91	75.00	1.634
	5	71.80	245.07	87.50	74.54	1.635

 Stats of both tours are based on 7 tournaments in 2011 season.

Don’t think for one second that the sport is all about just driving the golf ball.  But, also don’t forget that the ability to compress the golf ball with a driver extends to every other club. 

What a huge advantage it is to have a 7-iron in your hands on a 190-yard par 3 while others have to hit 4 irons.  Another great advantage, too, is the capacity of a powerful swing with wedges to control spin, distance, and trajectory.

Success is all about ball compression and ball compression is more than just swing technique.   Compressing the ball and sustaining compression from impact through ball separation requires skill learning and training—the heart of FastFirst.

The adversary in golf is the length of the course, and since low score is rewarded, length is a huge advantage. 

There is no tradeoff between distance and accuracy. 

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with Dawn Mercer, Director of Instruction at Innisbrook Golf Resort. She spent some time observing my work during the January Golf Show in Orlando and wanted to learn more about what we do to develop clubhead speed and improve ball flight.

She wrote about her time with me in the following article...thought I'd share it with you:

http://video.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/play-innisbrook-golf/2011/jun/3/form-or-speed-your-golf-swing/

When your ball is on the face of your clubhead for those 4 one-thousandths of a second, you simultaneously destroy the past and create the future.

That’s everything, the moment of performance that teaches us all we will ever know about golf and life.

We either “own” the ball or not. 

It’s why we swing.

It’s why we play.

It’s truth.

Failure to recognize this is missing the forest for the trees.

Realizing this lights the pathway toward excellence.

Why can’t even the greatest athletes perform the same skill the same way every time? 

The brain won’t let him!  The brain can’t plan a jump shot, a pitch, or a golf swing the same way every time.  Because of the design of the brain we are improvisers by default.  The nervous system was designed to be flexible.

Since the golf course is the ultimate arena, and since everything is random—no two shots are ever the same - isn’t flexibility required to fit the demands of the course?

The nervous system is unbelievably good, but it is not designed to repeat the same movement the same way over and over again.

So, then, what good is training and practice?  They can reduce the variations in the mind’s abilities.  Someone who has studied, for instance, will be better at solving a new physics problem than someone who hasn’t studied.

The brain that controls motor functions simply doesn’t organize motion the same way every time.  That’s not a bad thing.

A golf swing isn’t automatic and never will be, and again, isn’t that a good thing?  I think that we want the skills to be constantly improving, not locked in at given level.

Here’s A Must Read…Then Guess Who Said This…

“The golfers today are distance-minded, even the weekend golfers.

They have the strength and the golfing ability, but they don’t know how to make the most of what they have.  No matter how big and strong you are it doesn’t mean a thing in golf, unless you know how to apply your strength.  Distance is obtained by a full use of your physical faculties and strength in combination with perfect timing.

My advice to even the beginning golfer is to go ahead and hit the ball as hard as he can right from the start.  He will be wild for a time.  That’s only natural.  Later on he can straighten out his hooks and slices with minor alterations to his swing.


But if he doesn’t learn to hit the ball hard right at the start, he will never be able to get distance without major overhauling, because his speed and timing setup will be for something less than his full power.

The tournament golfers of today are shooting for birdies all of the time.  Within reason we try to hit our shots as far as we possibly can.

…Moreover, the location of the pin on the green doesn’t discourage us in our quest for birdies.  No matter where they put the pins we shoot for them and try to get down in as few strokes as possible.

…(With great driving)…your short game and putting problems will be much simpler because you can always be on the offense instead of the defense.

…A tee shot sets up the second shot and simplifies it.  Since the second shot is simplified, it stands to reason that the third shot, which is regularly the putt, will be relatively easy.”

                                                               

I have asked several players to tell me who provided these quotations. 

Arnold Palmer has been mentioned.  Tiger Woods has been mentioned.  Jack Nicklaus was mentioned, too.  One player even said that the words were mine.

Wrong!  These are quotes from Ben Hogan from his not-so-famous book, POWER GOLF. 

The year was 1953! 

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t claim to be a Hogan expert.  There are far too many Hogan “experts” already.  I’ve noticed through the years that experts seem to fall from the sky like raindrops following the demise of great athletes.

Being from Fort Worth, Texas, also Hogan’s hometown, and carrying the red, white, and blue of the Hogan Company for many years (playing Hogan equipment), doesn’t qualify me as anything but someone who has studied how Hogan learned to be Hogan.

Here is more about the man. 

Legendary player, Bobby Jones said of Hogan, “He thinks only in terms of birdies.  Several times out there he is actually trying to hole out a 60 or 70 yard pitch.  His goal is never the green.  It’s the cup.”

Jones also said of Hogan, “I thought I was a hard worker at this game.  I thought Hagen and Sarazen were hard workers.  But Ben Hogan is the hardest worker I’ve ever seen, not only in golf, but in any sport.”

Hogan said, “…There is no such individual as a born golfer…They’ve all been made…The hard way.”

Hogan said, “My hat is off to the plus 85 shooters.  Those are the fellows I want to help...If they still retain their enthusiasm for the game considering the way they have to play it, then they deserve any help I can give them.”

He often graciously pointed out how he admired the tenacity of high-scoring amateurs.  He said that an 85 to 90 shooter shooting 75 was the equivalent of a tour professional shooting 59.