Greetings Golfers,
I played twice last weekend – Saturday and Sunday. Not exactly great weather … especially on Sunday … but, it was maybe the last golf weather until Spring.
Played a really old course on Saturday with my sons. Hadn’t played there in 40 years. It was a good layout for my old-man game. Pretty narrow and pretty short. Most holes favored a right-to-left drive and usually a nice wide, long entrance into the green. Meaning that I could hit my sleazy running draw off the tee … then run some sort of low, skanky iron-shot onto the green. My game is the opposite of the modern hit-it-far and hit-it-high style of golf.
Before Jack Nicklaus, most good players drew their shots and played angles. Courses were pretty firm and dry … and the layouts rewarded controlled low, running shots. Jack came around the time of improved course conditions – especially watering. So … Jack developed a swing based on power … a high fade that flew over the trouble and landed softly. Then he’d hit a moon shot iron into the middle of the green and putt well. Because of Jack’s length with the driver … the par 5s were really par 4s for him. So par for Jack was 68 – not 72. He was already -4 before the round started.
But … but … but … Jack’s style of golf was not good for most golfers. Most people naturally slice … calling it a “fade” would be kind. And most people naturally scoop their iron shots trying to hit it up in the air. When looking for someone’s lost ball … I always go short and right of where they think it went. They don’t hit Jack’s “power fade”.
Now, especially as we get older … Jack’s “power fade” is really the wrong swing. You need to be young and strong and flexible for the power fade. And, willing to destroy your body. Those old-time drawers of the ball could play into old-age and not have all the problems you see in modern Tour players.
I recommend a loose swing that is more of a sweep than a hit. The driver should be the easiest club to use … and easiest to use well. It has a huge head and you can hit it off of a tee. A sweeping swing can do that all day. Iron shots with a sweep work pretty well too. However, I struggled with iron shots at both courses because they had really tight fairways. The only good high iron shots I hit over the weekend were on par 3s where I could tee-it-up. My fairway iron shots on Saturday worked because I could hit low runners onto the green. The course on Sunday was more modern and demanded higher iron shots into the greens. I needed to tee-it-up in the fairway! But seriously, I would prefer lush fairways with some cushion.
What I’m trying to say is that most of us should play with an old-school sweeping swing. And most golf courses should be designed for that swing. For most of us, golf is recreation … few are needing to play well to feed their families. A sweeping swing is easier on the body and easier to do. It feels a little unnatural at first – the desire to “hit” is natural, but not a good feel to build a swing on. Even a putting stroke is a sweep. And a sweeping draw goes farther than most people’s hit-type-slice … and is much more controllable.
Now we just need to adjust these modern courses to a sweeping swing.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Deer Run Golf Club
8661 Deer Run Drive
Victoria, MN 55386
(952) 443-2351
www.deerrungolf.com
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