My dad and I got out to golf late yesterday. It's the first time we've been able to play for a few weeks. We've both been busy. On the first tee we talked and caught up with what's been happening. I asked how his golf game has been. He told me that he is driving the ball well, hitting good iron shots, but that his chipping wasn't good. In fact, he said that it was bad, very bad. That surprised me.

My dad has a great short game. It's usually the best part of his game. When we practice together we often have chipping contests. We stand on the side of the practice green and the one with honors chooses a hole. We both chip to the hole and then putt. The one with the fewest strokes wins the hole. It's match play. Some days we chip for over an hour and play the holes dozens of times.

We also have a three-up automatic win rule. Being three holes ahead is regarded as an insurmountable lead, so we start a new game every time that happens. I rarely win that way. Dad often does. He's good.

Well, his chipping woes have been putting pressure on his putting. So I decided to watch to see if I could figure his problem. Sure enough on the first hole he had a chip from the side of the green. He hit it fat. I thought I saw something but decided to wait before saying anything.

On the second hole he had another chip. This time he hit it thin and bladed it onto the green. The result wasn't too bad, but he was disgusted with how the ball got to the green. He pounded his club to the ground. I told him that I could see his problem. I knew why he was struggling.

On the third tee I showed him. He was setting up with his hands with the ball. That was causing a sweeping approach to the ball. A perfectly good way to hit a drive. A bad way to hit a chip. It all made sense. I encouraged him to make sure that he pressed his hands forward, ahead of the ball, when addressing a chip shot.

The next opportunity to test this theory came at the side of the 4th green. He placed his hands ahead of the ball and hit a near perfect chip. He complained. The ball stopped three feet from the hole. He sunk the put for his par.

Dad chipped on several more holes and played well. It helped that I knew his swing and that we can communicate with each other. I've helped him before. Last year he was struggling with his driver and I could see that he was standing too close to the ball.

The big picture?

Easy.

We all need help and sometimes the only way to understand something is to get an outside opinion. Dad said that he thought he'd just lost the magic touch. I turns out that he just needed to be reminded. It works in golf. It also works in life........
9:50:28 PM    comment []